Aideen Hayden (Labour)

The reasonable way to approach Africa is by taking the bilateral approach, in the way we have done with foreign aid. We have built a number of positive relationships with the countries with which we have bilateral aid programmes. This offers us an opportunity to develop the benefits of critical mass.

There are two areas we should consider. The Minister mentioned, in the context of the Russian visit, the importance of education. I do not know if the Minister is aware of this, but the United States and the United Kingdom engage in educational franchising, that is, they franchise educational programmes in third countries. This has proved to be a successful way of bringing income into the third and fourth level systems in the United Kingdom. Similarly, medical tourism is very popular in the Middle East. It is an important source of income in a number of Middle Eastern countries. These are areas Ireland could explore in that regard. In the context of educational franchising and medical tourism, a cross-departmental approach is critical. As many of these sectors do not have the capacity to engage in export orientated activities, it will be essential to adopt that cross-departmental approach.