Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on budget 2019 and its implications for the work of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade under Votes 27 and 28. As Tánaiste and Minister with responsibility for co-ordinating the Government’s response on Brexit I would like to outline what budget 2019 means in terms of Ireland's readiness for Brexit and whatever it may bring. We are at a critical juncture in the Brexit process. EU and UK teams are now negotiating intensively with the aim of achieving verifiable progress before the October European Council meeting next week. I remain confident that a full withdrawal agreement can be agreed, including a backstop to guarantee no return of a hard border on the island of Ireland. While these talks continue in Brussels, it is vital that Ireland and Irish businesses prepare for Brexit. This was the focus of the Getting Ireland Brexit Ready campaign which we launched in Cork last Friday and which will include further events in Galway this Friday, Monaghan next Friday and Dublin on the following Thursday.

As set out yesterday, Brexit preparedness is foremost among the Government's priorities. The decisions to eliminate our deficit, increase the rainy day fund to €2 billion and to invest in key domestic infrastructure were about building our resilience and helping ensure Ireland is ready for whatever change Brexit may bring. This has been backed by strong sectoral responses across the full range of relevant Departments and agencies. This includes a new €300 million long-term future growth loan scheme, designed to complement the short-term SME loan scheme already in place and an overall agriculture package of an additional €80 million in funding across the farming and the food sector. In my Department, an additional €18 million has been allocated, primarily for Brexit-related expenditure in 2019 under Vote 28. Having already posted additional senior personnel to Berlin, Paris, London and Brussels, this will enable us to continue to strengthen our teams in other key EU capitals such as The Hague, Warsaw, Madrid and Rome.

Further funding is being earmarked for the Passport Service, which has seen a notable increase in demand for Irish passports from Irish citizens in Northern Ireland and Great Britain since the UK voted to leave the EU. Over 20% of total passport applications for 2017 came from these jurisdictions, with more than 82,000 applications received from Northern Ireland and almost 81,000 from Great Britain. This represents increases of 20% and 28%, respectively, on the 2016 applications. Additional funding is also being made available to support essential reconciliation work being carried out by civil society in Northern Ireland and across the island of Ireland, this work being urgent because of Brexit and the continuing absence of a Northern Ireland Executive. The Vote 28 allocation will help us to begin delivering on our global Ireland vision of an expanded international footprint for the post-Brexit world. This expanded presence will extend our support to Irish businesses in search of new markets. We will be opening offices in Mumbai, Frankfurt and Los Angeles and new embassies in Chile and Colombia in 2019, on top of the new embassies opened this year. It will also help us sustain close relations across the UK after Brexit, with the proposed opening of a new consulate in Cardiff next year. In 2019, we will also progress work on an exciting new embassy and Ireland House in Tokyo that will project the very best Ireland has to offer in one location. This is a major development, one of the most complex that we have ever undertaken overseas and a signal of the potential and opportunities that exist in terms of Irish-Japanese relations. This strengthened support for trade diversification is a crucial component of our Brexit response. In 2019, this will also include stepped-up preparations for Expo 2020 in Dubai, a major platform for Ireland internationally in a region with huge trade and investment potential for Ireland.

I am pleased to confirm that the Government will be in a position to significantly increase the funding available to overseas development assistance, ODA, in 2019, in comparison with the figures announced in budget 2018. This represents the highest year-on-year budgetary increase in ODA since 2006. This is a credible first step towards meeting the Government commitment to dedicate 0.7% of GNI to ODA by 2030, an objective that I believe is shared by all parties in this House, although Sinn Féin's proposal in its pre-budget submission of an increase in ODA of €10 million seems at odds with its commitments at the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence when discussing these issues. Yesterday’s announcements included a €44.8 million increase in the 2019 Vote 27 for Irish Aid, the international development programme managed by my Department. This significant budgetary commitment by the Government to international development is a reflection of Ireland’s values but also Ireland’s interests. We all have a stake in making the world a better place. We will use these additional resources to fight against poverty and hunger, to continue to bring real and sustainable improvements to some of the world’s poorest communities and to increase our response to the unprecedented level of humanitarian needs worldwide.

Europe is struggling to respond to movements of people resulting from conflict and lack of economic opportunity. At the same time, countries objectively much worse off than EU member states are hosts to millions of refugees. The effects of climate change are looming for all of us. As a global island, Ireland has a responsibility to help with the collective response and it is fundamentally in our interests to do so. The UN’s 2030 agenda and the EU plan for Africa announced by President Juncker last month set out a path for how this response can be shaped. We must chart a path towards a healthier, safer world in which millions more people can work in dignity close to home.

I look forward to continuing to make progress in future budgets.

See this speech in context