Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 138 and 161 together.

I thank Deputy Clendennen for this question, which is timely because now more than ever, at a time when some countries are choosing to look inwards, it is so important that Ireland continues to look outwards and increase our global footprint. Global Ireland 2025 was launched by the Government in 2018 with the aim of doubling Ireland’s footprint and impact by 2025. Under the strategy, Ireland’s diplomatic footprint has expanded significantly. We have gone from 73 to 100 bilateral missions, with the opening or announcement of 27 new missions.

In March 2024, new diplomatic missions were announced, including embassies in Belgrade and Sarajevo and consulates general in Málaga and Melbourne. These missions are scheduled to be fully operational by 2027. There has been additional strengthening of strategically important diplomatic missions, including in Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris and Washington DC.

Over 20 State agency offices were also opened over this period in addition to strong consolidation of the Ireland House model, where we co-locate Ireland's embassy or mission with a relevant State agency, such as the IDA or Enterprise Ireland. We have most recently opened Ireland Houses in New York and Stockholm and I am pleased to confirm that a new Ireland House in Tokyo will open in the coming weeks. The benefits of co-locating Team Ireland under one roof are enormous. I have seen this at first hand. To have everybody working on the ground - IDA, Tourism Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, the ambassador and the embassy - under one roof really does make a difference. We have set out our commitment in the programme for Government to further developing this Ireland House model.

The programme for Government commits the Government to further strengthening Ireland’s place in Europe and around the world. Under this, the Government will develop a new strategy called Global Ireland 2040, which will further enhance our place and influence in international affairs, including ever-deeper relationships with our European partners. Some preparatory work has commenced on this and we will start by reviewing the final outputs from Global Ireland 2025. The new strategy will be designed and delivered as a whole-of-government approach to Ireland's engagement with the world.

Consideration to the location of more potential new missions will be based on an analysis of how they might contribute to the promotion of our economic interests, our values in a changing and uncertain international landscape, the promotion of our culture and building stronger bridges with our diaspora.

When it comes to the United States of America, from my memory, and I think I am right, we are second only to France in terms of the number of consulates we have there. That is going to serve us in good stead as we continue to build our people-to-people links, our economic links and our links with individual states. We are second only to France, which is not bad for a country, in this jurisdiction, of just 5.6 million people. That is a sign of the investment we have put into our diplomatic footprint.

As well as opening new missions, which is important and we will be doing more and are committed to doing more, expanding the existing missions in a strategic and intelligent way is important. When I was Minister for higher education, I made the point that we need to have talent attachés located in key areas who could work with universities and the research and innovation communities to build links between universities, encourage student mobility and encourage more of the best and brightest to work on ideas. I am delighted that now we are seeing the first two talent attachés, one located in San Francisco and the other in Washington DC. Both of them are going to be in place this year.

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