Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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506. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of trade promotion visits organised by agencies under the remit of her Department, such as Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, which had representation from Northern Ireland on such missions for each of the years 2010 to 2015, inclusive; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33694/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Both agencies under the aegis of my Department, Enterprise Ireland (EI) and IDA Ireland, engage with relevant bodies in Northern Ireland to pursue areas of mutual advantage. Developing all-island initiatives and cooperation can, in certain circumstances, better build our competitive advantage internationally.

In the period 2010 to 2015, Enterprise Ireland had representation from Northern Ireland on 12 trade promotion visits while IDA involved companies from Northern Ireland on 3 occasions.

Extensive links have been forged by EI with various agencies and bodies in Northern Ireland. In particular there is close co-operation between Invest Northern Ireland(INI) and EI. A Memorandum of Understanding is in place between EI and INI to enable clients of both agencies to access market services, trade missions/fairs, seminars and to provide INI clients with access to EI management development programmes such as Leadership 4 Growthand the International Selling Programme. There is also close collaboration between EI, INI and InterTrade Ireland (ITI) on the specific Cross Border programmes which are run by the latter body, in order to ensure effective operation and non-duplication.

Enterprise Ireland, IDA and Invest Northern Ireland cooperated in relation to a Trade Mission to Singapore in December 2013 which was specifically targeted at companies from both jurisdictions who are active in the aerospace sector.

In 2015 and 2016 IDA Ireland in co-operation with EI, Department of Foreign Affairs and INI hosted a dinner in the Irish Embassy in London to coincide with the Irish Aviation Purchasing and Management Exhibition.