Noel O'Flynn (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

The cold war is over between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China, Taiwan. The political question has been put aside, as President Ma stated during a visit by Deputies to Taiwan last August. Taiwan is investing heavily in The People's Republic of China in such areas as tourism. As Deputy Perry stated, we seem to be falling behind other EU countries. Some €40 billion in goods and services is exported from the EU to Taiwan each year. Germany is the largest exporter and we export €250 million. As Deputy Perry indicated, we import €750 million which is an imbalance.

It is time to organise an official trade mission to Taiwan. I call on the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy John McGuinness, to consider putting this proposal to the Government. We should explain to the Chinese ambassador that we subscribe to the one China policy. However, it should be possible to have Taiwan as one of our trading partners, as is the case in all other EU countries. We should carry on more business in Taiwan. We should beef up the number of staff from the Department of Foreign Affairs staff in Taiwan; at present, there is only one staff member in place. I support the visa proposal. Some nine students from Taiwan are studying in Ireland. It is almost impossible to get a visa, but there are just less than 7,132 studying in England. English is our second language. Taiwanese people seek to come to Ireland, but we must make it easier to do so. I welcome the move in the UK this week of providing a clear visa with no restrictions for people travelling to Taiwan for six months.

All universities in the country are open for business. I recently brought Representative Lee to University College Cork where the president of the college said that it was open for business and wanted the students because they are worth €35,000 each to this economy every year.

See this speech in context