Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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111. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade further to his Dáil statement on 30 April 2015 regarding his efforts, as Minister, to promote Ireland's trade and export markets through his work with embassies, agencies and businesses, if he will update Dáil Éireann on his Department's efforts to promote a particular initative (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36984/15]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I warmly welcomed the announcement earlier this year by my colleague, Minister Paschal Donohoe, T.D., and Mr. Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, of the ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’ tourism offering. Ireland has a rich archaeological heritage that is worthy of being celebrated and shared with the world.

The Embassy network works closely with Tourism Ireland and its representatives overseas, regularly promotes Irish tourism – including ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’ – through its extensive network of social media sites, and supports tourism-promotion events in the network’s countries of accreditation. To give two examples from the past six weeks, at the beginning of October, the Ambassador to France supported the launch in Paris of ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’ at the IFTM (International French Travel Market), the largest travel trade exhibition in France, which attracts almost 30,000 visitors each year including influential tour operators and travel agents, as well as business tourism decision-makers and leading French travel media. On 22 September, the Embassy of Ireland in Copenhagen hosted a tourism promotion event with Tourism Ireland Nordics, to promote ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’ to tourism agents in Denmark.

In my response to the Spring Statement of 30 April 2015, I gave a broad outline of the extensive work of my Department in promoting Ireland’s trade, tourism, investment and education services overseas.

In this work, my Department and its Embassy network work closely with other Government Departments, including the Departments of Agriculture, Food and the Marine; Education and Skills; Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation; and Transport, Tourism and Sport, as well as with the relevant State agencies – Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Tourism Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland. Moreover, each of these is represented at Ministerial or CEO level on the Export Trade Council, which I chair. The ETC coordinates the implementation of the Government Trade, Tourism and Investment Strategy and its Review, which was published in February 2014. It met most recently on 6 October last.

The Embassy network, comprising over 80 missions, plays a frontline trade promotion role. The network proactively addresses market access issues, supports Irish businesses seeking to grow overseas, holds promotional events for, and in association with, State agencies and actively contributes to the organisation and conduct of Enterprise Ireland Ministerial-led trade missions and events overseas. In each of Ireland’s priority markets, Local Market Teams, chaired by the Ambassador, bring together the diplomats and State agency representatives present in the market to devise and implement annual Local Market Plans to steer Ireland’s trade, tourism, investment and educations efforts overseas. These annual plans and implementation reports are reviewed by the Export Trade Council each year.

Our air connectivity continues to grow, not least through the efforts of our Local Market Teams in lobbying for greater air access by supporting negotiations for increased capacity and expanded services on air routes to Ireland. There are regular welcome announcements of new routes and increased frequency on existing routes by airlines serving Irish airports. For instance, in late October, Aer Lingus announced an increase in the number of US destinations it serves by 50%, and will begin operating new direct flights from Dublin to Los Angeles, Newark and Hartford (Connecticut) next year. Such an expansion of routes represents a prime opportunity for tourism initiatives such as ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’ to be marketed to key overseas audiences, in addition to facilitating increased bilateral trade and investment.