Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 15, inclusive, together.

I led a trade mission to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from 4-9 January, accompanied by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, and representatives of 87 Irish companies. The purpose of the visit was to enhance our political, economic and trade relationships with these states, grow the level of exports and jobs and explore potential areas for future collaboration between Ireland and these key priority markets for Ireland. This was my first visit as Taoiseach to the Gulf and provided me with a valuable opportunity to meet senior political leaders in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

There have already been immediate economic benefits resulting from the mission, with contracts worth more than €65 million announced by participating companies and an initial 95 jobs created in Ireland. I expect that further benefits in jobs, investment and export growth will follow.

There were also significant outcomes relating to air connectivity. Emirates airline announced a doubling of flights between Dubai and Dublin during my meeting with its representatives. I also met representatives of Etihad Airways and the company announced that it will increase the number of flights from Abu Dhabi to Dublin from ten a week to 14 a week. Both these changes will take effect this summer and will bring to 28 the number of flights into Dublin per week on these airlines. This is concrete evidence of our growing links with the region. I am fully confident that we will see further economic benefits for the people from this trade mission in terms of investment, exports, tourism and jobs.

I will outline the specific elements of my programme. In Saudi Arabia I met Crown Prince Salman, who is also Minister of Defence, and Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulazi, the Deputy Foreign Minister. At these meetings I discussed the potential for strengthening the economic and trade relationship between Ireland and Saudi Arabia and the potential for collaboration in such areas as information technology, health, education, construction and food production for our mutual benefit. I also welcomed the recent lifting of beef restrictions, a move which presents significant opportunities for Ireland.

I met Dr. Khalid Al Ankary, the Saudi Minister of Higher Education, and welcomed the strong educational links we have with Saudi Arabia, reflected in the 2,700 Saudi students currently studying here. The Minister noted the positive experience reported by these students and I emphasised Ireland's commitment to continuing this and to working on strengthening links further. I also raised the issue of accreditation for several institutions within our information technology sector. I understand that a delegation from the Saudi Ministry of Higher Education visited Ireland from 18-21 March and in particular visited seven institutes of technology. The Saudi ministry is currently compiling its assessment report. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, will attend the international exhibition and conference on higher education in Saudi Arabia later this month. The Minister will inquire about the outcomes from the Saudi visit while there.

During the meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Salman I noted the election of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations Human Rights Council as a positive development in the area of human rights and expressed Ireland's interest in working more closely with Saudi Arabia on human rights issues. The issue of women's rights was not specifically discussed. We discussed issues around peace and stability in the region and these were also the main focus of my meeting with the Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister, Abdulaziz bin Abdullah.

Regional political issues, including the Middle East peace process, and the situation in Syria, including the humanitarian crisis there, also arose in my meetings with the Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser al Than; the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum; the UAE Crown Prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed; and the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh, Abdullah bin Zayed al Nayhan.

In all of these meetings, I commended the Arab peace initiative and I reiterated our concerns about Gaza and the dangers posed to the two state solution by continuous expansion of Israeli settlements. I emphasised Ireland's strong track record in peacekeeping and conflict resolution and our concerns about the situation in Syria. I welcomed the Geneva talks process and reiterated Ireland's position that the Assad regime should step down as soon as possible in order to bring about peace, stressing the need for a solution based on political dialogue.

As well as discussing these international and regional issues, a key focus of my political meetings was on the potential to strengthen trade, investment and economic ties between Ireland and the Gulf states. In my meeting with the Prime Minister of Qatar, we spoke about opportunities arising from Qatar's hosting of the 2020 football World Cup and offered our co-operation in terms of preparation for the event. While we did not specifically discuss the issue of migrant workers, I would fully expect that any Irish company engaged in associated contracts in Qatar would treat its workers fairly and humanely and have due regard to health and safety concerns. Indeed, Irish contractors reassured me on this.

During my meeting with the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, I updated him on the progress being made by Ireland towards economic recovery as well as Dubai's rapid economic development. We spoke about the strengths of the Irish horse racing industry, given his family's long-standing investments in stud farms and bloodstock in Ireland, including the employment of 350 people. We also discussed the strengthening relationship between Ireland and the UAE. The UAE's Minister of Economy, Minister of Labour and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs also took part in this meeting.

From an investment perspective, I had important meetings with the governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, SAMA, the Qatar Investment Authority and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, ADIA. In each of these meetings, I emphasised Ireland's attractiveness for investment, outlined our progress towards economic recovery and invited all three agencies to visit Ireland to find out more about investment opportunities, including in infrastructure and foreign bonds. I met the Qatar Islamic Bank, QIB, where we discussed Ireland's strengths as a location for international financial services and Islamic finance. As a direct result of my visit, a QIB delegation visited Ireland last week and participated in an extensive programme, including a meeting with me in Government Buildings.

My programme also included a range of business engagements and events. In Saudi Arabia, I met a number of Irish companies and their Saudi partners. I performed the official opening of new offices for two Irish companies - SEPAM offices in Qatar and Glenbeigh offices in Dubai. I spoke at a health workshop hosted by the Dubai Health Authority to promote collaboration with Irish health care companies. I was also pleased to meet the Ireland Saudi Arabia Business Council, the Qatar business association, the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development and the Abu Dhabi chamber of commerce, which are all doing excellent work in fostering and enhancing business connections between our two countries. As mentioned, I met the CEOs of key airlines Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways, where the focus was on linking Irish firms with these airlines as suppliers of goods and services as well as connectivity issues.

I also attended a Tourism Ireland key partners event in Dubai. I attended business receptions in Riyadh, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which provided me with an opportunity to meet Irish members of the Irish business community resident in the region. I met members of the Global Irish Network in Dubai, where we discussed their experience of living and doing business in the region. They shared their insights into how we could deepen and strengthen our economic and trade relationship with the Gulf states.

This was a very successful and worthwhile visit that I expect, over time, to yield significant benefits to Ireland in terms of jobs, investment and trade. A key focus in the period ahead will be to ensure the opportunities arising from the visit are vigorously pursued by all the relevant Departments and agencies.

See this speech in context