Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We need a strategic view of what doubling Ireland's global footprint by 2025 actually means. Is it specifically looking at regions we need to invest in, beefing up existing embassies and-or establishing the embassies which have been announced? As Deputy McDonald said, the Taoiseach announced new embassies for Wellington in New Zealand, Santiago in Chile, Bogota in Colombia and Oman in Jordan, none of which has actually opened yet. When is it envisaged that they will open? The Taoiseach has indicated that a new consulate general will open in Frankfurt and that our footprint on the west coast of the USA will be increased. In the latter stages of the previous Government, of which we were both members, we increased our footprint in Asia. Looking at China, we opened a consulate general in Hong Kong to supplement the consulate already established in Shanghai and the embassy in Beijing. We also opened a new embassy in Jakarta and a consulate in Austin, Texas.

Strategically, what is the Taoiseach's intention? It would be interesting to have a view on that. Is it the general view that new and existing embassies should migrate to the "Ireland House" structure where Bord Bia, the IDA and other bespoke Irish agencies are housed in a single centre?

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