Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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184. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the basis on which he reported that the 27 ministerial trips abroad for St. Patrick's Day yielded an immediate €5 million, as against a cost of more than €300,000; his views that the official trips of Ministers on business promotion trips abroad is financially justified, especially to countries which do very little trade with Ireland and have a very small number of Irish citizens resident in them; and if he will provide the full cost of any business promotion trips in 2015 which he or other Ministers in his Department engaged. [15190/15]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The St. Patrick’s Day period is a cornerstone of the Government’s efforts to promote trade, tourism, investment, education, innovation and culture to an overseas audience. Over the 2015 St. Patrick’s Day period, the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and a further twenty-seven Ministers and Ministers of State undertook extensive programmes of engagements in a total of 27 different countries, supported by the Embassy network. Of the 29 separate itineraries for Ministerial office-holders, 25 were in markets identified as “Priority” or “Exploratory and High Potential” under the 2014 Review of the Government Trade, Tourism and Investment Strategy. The choice of locations also reflected the recent expansion of the Embassy network, diaspora hubs, and Ireland’s work in development cooperation. The locations included the main centres of global business media coverage, which are critical to conveying Ireland’s message of economic recovery. As in previous years, North America was a particular focus of the visits, reflecting strong diaspora and trade and investment links. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade leads on the coordination of the Ministerial itineraries, and each year coordinates a set of key economic and related messages for dissemination at events overseas. The Embassy network is responsible for management of individual programmes on the ground, working closely with Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Bord Bia, Tourism Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland. As such, Ministerial itineraries are designed to further our national objectives overseas in a highly co-ordinated, visible and effective way. The value of Ministerial visits is incontrovertible, allowing us to leverage the unique opportunities provided by the international profile of our national day, which is unrivalled by any other country in the world. The presence of a Ministerial office-holder from Ireland helps to secure bilateral meetings at the highest levels of Government to discuss issues of mutual concern; helps to secure attendance by senior executives of foreign companies at trade and investment-related meetings and events; helps to secure coverage of Ireland’s economic recovery by global and local media organisations; and helps to promote Ireland as a destination for tourism and international education.

As regards the €5 million figure for 2014, this figure comes from the “Supporting Irish Exporters Section” of the report “Ireland’s Economic Diplomacy in Action: St Patrick’s Day 2014”, published by the Department in April 2014. This report was compiled on the basis of reporting by the Embassy network, in consultation with the promotional State agencies, and the figure represented an estimate of new business won in the immediate aftermath of the St. Patrick’s Day period. My Department is currently compiling a report on St Patrick’s Day 2015, and this will be published shortly.

Every effort is made to ensure that costs related to St. Patrick’s Day itineraries are kept to a minimum. In 2014, the total cost of all Ministerial travel was €281,739. Again in 2015, clear instructions were issued for all Ministerial visits to be undertaken in the most cost-efficient way. The full final cost is not yet available.