Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Many people noticed that Sweden and Slovenia, two member states of the European Union, closed their embassies in Dublin last year. Given that they did so and clearly did not consider they had such a level of interest, either in trade or otherwise, in dealing with us, is there not a case for closing our missions in countries such as those, certainly in the case of Sweden? As the Tánaiste said, €80 million or so is being spent on our 75 missions. Could those missions not be better placed? The Irish Exporters' Association asked recently that we concentrate more on Latin America, as the Tánaiste rightly mentioned, and on Asia and Africa. If the Swedish do not want to be friends of ours, as in the case of Facebook, why should we be friends of theirs?

See this speech in context