Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Gilmore, for being with us this afternoon to hear the report and to make his own remarks. I am delighted that he has taken time off his busy schedule to be here for this report.

I am pleased to present to the report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade on the contribution of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to economic recovery.

From the start of our economic and fiscal crisis, the overriding task of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been the contribution that it can make to the country's recovery. In turn, the joint committee, by extension, was required in its report to assess the way in which the Department rose to the challenge, and whether its structures were adequate for the task in hand.

Specifically, we wanted to be sure that the unique resource offered by the embassy network was used to best effect, in association with the relevant State agencies, in trade and tourism promotion and attracting foreign investment, as well as restoring Ireland's reputation. We wanted to be sure also that the organisational structures at the Department's headquarters provided the necessary support for this task and were adequate to the Department's new responsibilities.

Over the course of about a year and a half, the joint committee engaged with a wide range of actors from the Department itself, the State agencies, chambers of commerce, employers' and exporters' organisations, and farmers' representatives. Given the importance of the United States as a source of investment, the joint committee examined the operation of the consulates there. The task has given the members of the joint committee an excellent insight into the process of economic promotion. It has also impressed on us the importance of reputation, for which our embassies have a special responsibility. We have also come to appreciate the role of the Global Irish Network in fostering the international dimension of Ireland's recovery.

The Government and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade adopted a number of strategies in response to the economic crisis and to the programme for Government, and the joint committee sought to explore the implementation of these strategies and their contribution to recovery. These strategies included the conferring of a trade promotion function on what had been the Department of Foreign Affairs; the establishment of the Export Trade Council; the programme of trade missions; the establishment of the Global Irish Network and the Global Irish Economic Forum; a strategic approach to St. Patrick's Day activities; a more streamlined structuring of diplomatic missions and their further orientation towards the promotion of foreign earnings; the identification, in co-operation with State agencies, of priority markets; departmental restructuring, including the closure of certain diplomatic missions; and the impact of the "first 100 days" ambassadorial conference.

Given the importance of the United States as a trading partner and source of investment, the joint committee's examination involved at the outset a visit which focused on three Irish consulates, as well as business networks and industry representatives in the related consular areas. This visit yielded valuable information supplementing that gathered in meetings of the joint committee.

The joint committee, at the outset, took careful note of the task set for his Department by the Tánaiste in his strategy statement, in which he stated that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade "will have the leading role, in close cooperation with the State Agencies, Irish business and the Global Irish Network, in fostering the international dimension of Ireland's economic growth." It also had regard to the Department's own strategy statement, in which the Secretary General, Mr. David Cooney, stressed that Ireland's embassies and consulates were "a resource for the whole of Government ... and will be seen to deliver a significant contribution to the objectives shared across Government". He stated that over the next three years the co-operation with State agencies and with other Departments at home and abroad, and with non-governmental agencies and interest groups, would intensify, and structures would be put in place to maximise the benefits to Ireland from all the resources that the Department employed abroad.

The joint committee recognises that Ireland has a range of national interests to promote and protect, as well as a range of responsibilities to fulfil as a member of the European Union, the United Nations and other international organisations and of the international community generally. According to its mission statement, the purpose of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is "to promote and protect abroad the values, interests and economic well-being of Ireland and its people". The vigorous and competent attention to Ireland's interests and responsibilities, for which the Department has long been known, cannot be separated easily from the promotion of economic interests abroad, which the embassy network has always pursued.

Nonetheless, at present it is more important than ever that the Department and the embassy network are focused on Ireland's trade, investment and tourism interests. This is reflected in the enhanced role in trade promotion conferred by the present Government, although, as stated by the Tánaiste in his address at the ambassadors' conference in 2011, this role was in part recognition of the valuable contribution the embassy network had been making to economic recovery.

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