Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

We spend over €50 billion a year in this country on a range of services and there is always some service somewhere in need even though there have been historic increases in current and capital expenditure in every area in the past decade, and far more and far higher than the average rate. I am often criticised in the House about our rate of current expenditure year-on-year which is higher than practically any other country in the European Union. Our capital expenditure is higher than any other country because of the historical deficits and because of what we have to deal with in terms of a rise in population and a strong economy. There will always be deficiencies, gaps and areas of need. That happens even in Norway which probably has the highest rate of public expenditure.

What we do in this regard is the same as with Oireachtas groups that travel to examine issues during the year. There is thought put into what takes place. We look at the markets. We look at where there is an added value to promote and to showcase the country in a modern way. That is why even in a more difficult year we get still a good and fair share of foreign direct investment. It is why for a country of our size we get between 8 million and 9 million tourists. We get recognition across the world in so many ways from our business people to our arts and culture. We can continue that.

I could go through the individual locations. A total of 45 locations has been highlighted this year for the Ministers to cover. Some of those visits link in to trade missions. It is not the case that Ministers are just going abroad again but they wish to extend the St. Patrick's Day period and to follow a programme. Each Minister takes part in this and each Minister takes on the agenda of another Minister. They are all given extensive briefs to deal with this.

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, is in Milan today participating in an Enterprise Ireland launch for 60 business clients and contacts. On Thursday he will be involved in tourism-related events. These are all pre-St. Patrick's Day events. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Brian Lenihan's programme in Boston is in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland and will include events focused on medical devices and biotechnology. The Tánaiste will be involved in events in Malaysia to promote Irish financial services and telecoms companies. He will open the new Kuala Lumpur offices of the Royal College of Surgeons. Ministers are not just involved in their own area of responsibility, they have a full range of responsibilities.

It has been noted in this House that our neighbours and colleagues across the water have decided this week to do what we have done for years, which is to have a new national holiday to promote their identity and to bring a sense of Britishness to their people. It is interesting that they chose to do it this week because recently they attend St. Patrick's Day events all over America, which we are always very pleased to see. I am glad to see they also have a great respect for St. Patrick. Thankfully we have that. We have had that for generations. We have had St. Patrick for a few thousand years and we have built around that.

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