Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can assure the Deputies that this is something to which I am very seriously committed. When I was Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport I had the opportunity to travel to all parts of the world promoting aviation and tourism in particular, as well as doing other work including general Government representation and IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland work, as part of that travel. I was always extraordinarily impressed by the quality of the staff we had on the ground, our diplomats and the people working for our agencies. It occurred to me that we needed a lot more of them and that it would be a good investment by our country to expand our diplomatic presence and the footprint of IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Tourism Ireland, Bord Bia and our cultural agencies. Now that I hold the office of Taoiseach, I intend to do something about it and make it a reality. I did not set this out as an August story. It was first proposed back in May or June in a document which I published entitled, "Taking Ireland Forward". I expanded on it in the speech I made in Toronto in Canada and set the task to my Ministers, the line Ministers, to draw up that plan so that it can be agreed by Government and published by the end of the year.

The intention is, over the period 2018 to 2025, to double our global footprint. That does not necessarily mean a doubling of agencies, staff or budgets but, in the round, that is what it does mean - a doubling of our global presence. It will, of course, involve extra embassies but not necessarily a doubling of the exact number of embassies. In some countries we might expand the embassies, for example, while in other countries we may create-----

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