Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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5. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the proposed new embassies and consulates that will be opened in 2024; if he will ensure that a new Irish consulate is opened in Australia in light of the growing Irish population there and the strengthening links between Ireland and Australia. [11049/24]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the announcement by the Cabinet that Ireland will be opening new embassies in Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Moldova, as well as a consulate in Malága. I particularly welcome the announcement that Ireland will open an additional consulate in Melbourne, something I have been advocating for some time. Will the Tánaiste outline a timeframe for the opening of those embassies and consulates and indicate what other embassies and consulates will be opened this year?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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On 5 March, the Government approved the opening of five new missions. This is the latest step in the expansion of the State’s diplomatic and consular network. The new missions are embassies in Belgrade, Sarajevo and Chisinau and consulates general in Malága and Melbourne. This expansion is being undertaken within the context of the Global Ireland programme, which aims to see Ireland’s global footprint and influence double in the period to 2025. These five new missions will bring to 27 the number of missions opened or announced under Global Ireland. We will also continue to work at strengthening and deepening our resources in strategic locations. For example, it is intended, in this regard to assign an additional diplomatic officer to the embassy in Cairo to work exclusively on our key relationship with Lebanon.

The mission openings announced on Tuesday reflect a number of key priorities, including the importance of the enlargement agenda during our Presidency of the EU in 2026, the consular needs of our citizens overseas and opportunities for trade promotion and diaspora engagement. I warmly welcome the decision to open a consulate general in Melbourne, which in addition to being an important commercial centre, is home to a large and thriving Irish community. A presence on the ground will assist the Government to deepen our engagement here, build political relationships, support Irish business and engage with Irish citizens and the vibrant Irish diaspora. This decision underlines the importance the Government attaches to strengthening our relationship with Australia as a whole building on the important work of the embassy in Canberra, the consulate general in Sydney and the offices of the State agencies. A new embassy in Islamabad and consulates general in Milan and Munich are expected to open later this year.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The Tánaiste was reading from a prepared script, so he did not include the dates of the openings for which I asked him.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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This is up to date.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Will he give a timeframe for the openings of the embassies and consulates general that were announced this week, particularly the consulate general in Melbourne? I have been pressing the Government for some time on this. As the Tánaiste noted, Melbourne has a significant Irish community. Australia is a country with which Ireland has an ever-strengthening relationship but this relationship could and should be much stronger geographically and politically. There is a lot to be gained from even stronger relationships and connections between the two countries not least because the Irish diaspora is thriving in Australia and the Irish are central to virtually every facet of Australian life. We should be utilising that further. Essentially ,my question concerns the timeframe for the opening of the consulate general in Melbourne.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Resources have been allocated in this year's Estimates so we will do it as quickly as possible in terms of securing a premises and the allocation of personnel. It will take a normal timeframe. These are missions where we can establish a presence relatively quickly. I have been to Australia on a number of occasions. Melbourne will become the largest city in Australia before too long. It has a strong historic Irish-Australian community as well a new younger Irish community of whom thousands were born in Ireland. Australia has always been close to Ireland with a strong partnership. There are also significant economic ties between Ireland and Australia and great familial, historic and cultural ties so this is good news. Melbourne is a great sporting city and there is a resonance there with Irish people in terms of Melbourne and history.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I did not get a timeframe. We will continue to chase that. The establishment of new embassies and consulates is always welcome. I agree with the approach of expanding Ireland's diplomatic footprint. We are behind many similar-sized states in terms of our diplomatic reach. I welcome the fact that we have been improving that in recent times.

Apart from some of the high-profile postings like the UN, Brussels or London, a very small number of Irish diplomats are posted to individual missions with the number falling far below our peer nations. We have been blessed with the fact that most of our diplomatic core work incredibly hard and represent us very well but the likes of Sweden, Finland and Denmark have, on average, about 16 staff deployed per mission. Out of our 98 missions, 49 have just one diplomat posted and 73 have three or fewer. Has the Government any plans to review staffing levels to ensure that when we have embassies and consulates general, we are making the biggest impact from them?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We have having a great impact with the diplomats we have and value for money is very important. It is not about the numbers but about the quality. We have a very high-quality diplomatic workforce. I am glad the Deputy is coming to that view.

I said that our Presidency of the EU is key to the timeline. The new missions will open in 2025 or 2026. The embassies in Belgrade, Sarajevo and Chisinau will open no later than the second half of 2025 given their importance for our EU Presidency, which will be in 2026. That is the timeline. It is just a matter of identifying the property solution and allocating personnel to head up these new postings.

Numbers are tight in some areas, but it depends on the areas. If one looks at our development aid programme in Africa, for example, we have relatively larger numbers of embassy staff to reflect the enormous allocations we now give to different countries under the development aid programme and the need to ensure that this is done properly, both appropriately and in an impactful way.