As a committee we recognised the role and in particular the revised role the Department has in our economic recovery. I will not repeat verbatim the full report but will instead concentrate on some of its key aspects before emphasising the recommendations in my second contribution later today. These key aspects are the new Department structures; the Export Trade Council and co-operation with State agencies; the Global Irish Network and Global Irish Economic Forum; St. Patrick’s Day; diplomatic representation; and trade promotion in co-operation with State agencies.

The Secretary General at the beginning of 2012 implemented a restructuring aimed at sharpening the Department’s focus on trade promotion in key country and regional markets. This involved the establishment of a trade and promotion division, divided into two parts. The first part is concerned primarily with trade promotion, including servicing the Export Trade Council, co-ordination and liaison with other State agencies, Government Departments and the private sector on trade, tourism and investment promotion and joint economic commissions.

The second part concentrates on economic messaging, ensuring that accurate, up-to-date and comprehensive information about Ireland is disseminated through the embassy network and made available to foreign media, economic actors and Governments. The division is also responsible for ensuring that its trade, tourism and investment promotion efforts are coherently integrated into the work of all units of the Department and the entire embassy network. The Department is also guided by the Government report Trading and Investing in a Smart Economy: A Strategy and Action Plan for Irish Trade, Tourism and Investment to 2015.

There is now a single point of contact at headquarters for each of our embassies across the range of sectors in which they are active, with new regional entities established to cover all aspects of relations with individual countries, including trade promotion. These entities are the Europe division, the Middle East and north Africa unit, the Asia-Latin America unit, the Africa section within the development co-operation division, and the UK and North America units within the Anglo-Irish division. The trade and promotion division liaises with the State agencies and works closely with the geographic units and other units, including the Irish abroad unit and the press section. The joint committee welcomes these arrangements which not only provide for an integrated treatment of economic, political and other issues but also responds better to current resource pressures.

The Export Trade Council, chaired by the Tánaiste and serviced by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, oversees implementation of the strategy and meets twice a year at high level, with the involvement of the relevant Ministers, senior officials, the CEOs of Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Bórd Bia, Tourism Ireland, Culture Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland, as well as a number of private sector representatives including from IBEC and the Irish Exporters Association. Preparatory meetings at official level take place in between the high-level sessions. The council ensures high-level overview of the targets of the State agencies and the extent to which they are achieved.

Under the trade strategy, priority markets have been identified in mature economies as well as in emerging economies such as the BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, India and China. Local market teams have been established drawn from embassies and State agency offices abroad to lead and co-ordinate activity, under the chairmanship of the Irish ambassador. These teams draw up annual market plans and report on them to the Export Trade Council through the trade and promotion division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The principal focus of these market plans is on areas where a co-ordinated embassy and State agency approach is likely to yield best results.

The Department’s enhanced responsibilities in respect of trade promotion require it to work even more closely with Enterprise Ireland on its annual programme of ministerial trade missions and other trade events. Some 18 trade missions were mounted in 2013 and a comparable number are planned for 2014. These missions are led at political level, by the Tánaiste, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for trade and development, Deputy Costello, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton and other Ministers. The joint committee particularly welcomes the fact that it has become normal practice to include a strong trade, tourism and investment promotion element in all bilateral visits led by the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Ministers of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for trade and development, Deputy Costello, and for European affairs, Deputy Donohoe, and that they are often accompanied by representatives of Irish companies.

The Global Irish Network now has about 350 members, and the Global Irish Economic Forum has met three times. The Export Trade Council in February 2012 decided to involve members of the Global Irish Network, as appropriate, in trade missions and ministerial visits, and notes that members of the network are engaged with Enterprise Ireland client companies and that many of them have agreed to be advocates in a wide range of sectors in the export and investment areas, as well as for last year’s major tourism initiative, The Gathering, which we all know was very successful.

We are still in the month of March. The St. Patrick’s Day period has long offered an opportunity for reputational and economic benefit, and is being used to the full. The tradition of Ministers travelling to priority centres worldwide has over the years proved a highly valuable means of exploiting the unique profile of Ireland’s national day and, more important, of energising the Irish diaspora and the Global Irish Network. Especially noteworthy is the extent to which the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day has in recent years become an event in city calendars in many countries, enlivened by Irish-related cultural and promotional events, and is no longer confined to the historic centres of the Irish diaspora. The present approach to St. Patrick’s Day should therefore continue, with targeted preparation by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the embassies, in close co-operation with the State agencies and their offices abroad, including with Culture Ireland. For the past couple of years I have been fortunate enough to travel to the US at the same time as the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to see at first hand the very valuable work undertaken by them in terms of both Ireland’s political and commercial interests.

The joint committee recognises that the effectiveness of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in promoting Ireland’s economic interests cannot be measured in the same way as that of the State agencies, which have precise targets to meet. Rather, it provides a platform that assists the State agencies in achieving their targets. The joint committee notes the good relations that exist between the Department and the State agencies, as reported by witnesses, and encourages them to foster and develop these relations even further.

The joint committee in its report is conscious of the fact that Ireland’s diplomatic representation, comprising 58 embassies and ten consulates, in addition to the seven multilateral missions, is thin in comparison to that of other countries of comparable size and economic interests, and also that diplomatic missions in general are lightly staffed. It recognises that current resource constraints make this difficult to address, but there are countries that have emerged as powerful economies in recent years. In the United States, which is by far the most important source of foreign investment as well as an enormous market, there have been significant changes in regional economic weight. The latter has been recognised by the establishment of a consulate general in Atlanta and I am also pleased to see that the committee’s suggestion that a consulate be opened in Texas, the second most populous state and an increasingly important market and source of investment, has been acted upon. I am also pleased to note the Government decision in January to open embassies in Zagreb, Nairobi, Jakarta and Bangkok, the last two which were specifically referred to by the committee in its report. I look forward to seeing our embassy reopen in Tehran when resources and circumstances permit.

The network of honorary consuls also performs a very valuable role worldwide, providing the benefits of local representation in a very cost-effective way, at little or no cost. Consideration should be given to expanding it, particularly in the United States where there are nine honorary consuls but where there are cities where we have no representation which are important centres of Irish-American population as well as significant economic centres.

Given the transfer of specific trade promotion functions to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, co-operation with Enterprise Ireland, EI, is essential, given EI’s mission which is to partner with Irish businesses and the research and investment communities in developing Ireland’s trade and fostering innovation, leadership and competitiveness. EI’s client companies, the so-called “indigenous sector”, directly employ 165,000 people and indirectly support more than 300,000 jobs. Despite the economic difficulties of recent years, exports from this sector have continued to increase. Engineering and construction were particularly affected by the recession and EI has been engaged in helping companies in this sector to internationalise their operations. Also, EI has been working with companies to develop their capacities, including by offering access to the latest research in their sectors, and to enhance their competitiveness to make them better able to compete in the international marketplace. As a result, more indigenous companies than ever before are exporting from Ireland.

EI has a network of 30 overseas offices located in key target international markets, which provide a range of services to companies, including market knowledge on a sectoral basis, introductions to buyers, suppliers and potential partners, and market intelligence including competitor analysis, identification of suitable suppliers of professional services and information on regulation.

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