Results 46,181-46,200 of 46,575 for speaker:Simon Harris

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: The current draft legislation, as I have long previewed, will be in goods but from a policy point of view I am not against including services. What I need to do is tease through the legality of that. We have very good people who do a very good job on that in the Department, for which I thank them. As they work through this, the present general scheme, and I say this to be helpful in...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: I do not disagree. The question here is whether Ireland can do that unilaterally or can only do it at EU level. I am quite sure the committee will tease through that.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: To take the last point first, we have increased significantly our footprint in our physical presence and number of people. Do I believe we need to do more? I do and when we talk about growing Ireland’s footprint it cannot just be about buildings but also the depth of the teams in those buildings. I am supportive of that and the Deputy can be assured I will make that case in the...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: The long and the short is we are working on this. Technology and the digitisation could be an important part of that. Occasionally, I do hear the issue of how to take the correct photograph that is acceptable. I do not mean to trivialise this because it is important we help people. We have a good video on the website to which I would refer people. Customers can vary greatly in the level...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: I would have to do my sums. It is about 10,000.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy McCarthy. We were conscious of Cork and Belfast and all parts of this island. As I think I told the Deputy in the Dáil before, we have plans to move office in Cork and this will make room for additional staff. We do, therefore, have a commitment to expanding there. On the broader issue of new offices being needed, I think, on balance, ensuring the service is accessible...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: Sure thing.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: On the last one, it is a matter for those individual companies to operate within the regulatory structures that exist, but I think there is a real obligation on countries to do an awful lot more to assist developing countries with climate adaptation. I attended a conference during the UN General Assembly week last year. I was really struck by those countries that often have the least and...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: I was very struck yesterday by my engagement with a number of countries, including France, which is part of the EU3. When I was looking back on all this yesterday too, I was reminded of the years in which the world made some degree of progress in relation to these issues. We were at our best when we were trying to advance the JCPOA. The question now is if we can use this space that a...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: That is a question I will have to ponder and come back to the Deputy on. I am not sure, first of all, if there are plans for such a display this year, but do let me check it. I will give some reflection to it. I agree and think the college games and now the regular NFL game in September are huge opportunities for our capital city and our country. I think they will be really good...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: I appreciate the Chair saying that. We will take him up on it. It is always easy to engage when everyone is getting along on every issue. It is harder but more important to do it when we are not. Therefore, we need to seize the opportunity in August and September to do that. I will link with the committee on that.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: It is a good question. I am pleased to say it has not. The Deputy is quite right that when you look at the figures, that is exactly what you see. She is correct in what she said, but there is an answer. An extra €4.3 million was spent in one year versus the others. It was a once-off allocation to hire a chair of Irish studies at Cambridge university. I assure the Deputy the level...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: The short answer is "Yes", but we have to do it in a very careful way because there is a balance here. We want to make it as easy as possible for people to move back to their country. We want them back. This is an issue that definitely comes up. It came up a number of times when I was in the United States in February and March. It comes up from our diaspora all of the time. What we have...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: It is static, but I make the point, and I am always struck by this when I go abroad, that we are one of a relatively small number of countries that has such an active programme of financial support for our diaspora, quite rightly. That is so much so that other countries are now looking to Ireland and how we run these programmes and thinking about how they can develop them too. As a line...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: That was very efficient. We will get that paper on Expo. We very much welcome it. People should know we made a pretty big investment in it. It is my genuine gut feeling based on the feedback I get that it is worth it. I am proud of the work that is being done but we will absolutely provide that paper. On the Attorney General's advice, I want to be fair to the Attorney General on this....

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: Let us do that. I appreciate Deputy Ó Laoghaire's raising of this issue. He is entirely right; not alone is the world not doing enough about the issue but it is not even getting enough attention, bandwidth or discussion, yet the scale of the catastrophe is huge. Ireland has consistently advocated for greater international attention. We must challenge ourselves and see what more we...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: There was a surge in travel advice post-Covid, which drove more people to the website during that time.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: This is the challenge. I am a big believer in controlling what you can control and I am a big believer in Ireland’s foreign policy and public policy being values-driven and evidence-based. From both the point of view of our values and scientific evidence, we know these are the right things to do and, therefore, we need to continue to do them. Multilateralism is under attack in...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: Yes. That is Ireland's position.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Simon Harris: Not at all. To Deputy Michael Murphy, with the exception of this foreign affairs meeting, the best and nicest thing I have done today - I am only joking - was meeting the Little Blue Heroes. I thank him for bringing them here. It would warm your heart. It is an incredible initiative by An Garda Síochána. I also thank its members for it. I hope the nine young people here today,...