Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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100. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of new staff recruited to his Department from January 2019 to date; the title of each employment position; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53644/19]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In recent years my Department has recruited a significant number of additional staff. As well as recruitment to fill vacancies including those that arose during the embargo, staff have been allocated to support Brexit-related negotiations and preparations following the decision by the UK in 2016 to leave the EU. Further investment since then relates primarily to demands on the passport service and the expansion of Ireland’s diplomatic and consular mission network as part of the Global Ireland 2025 strategy, including operational and policy reinforcement in headquarters to support that objective.

Since the launch of Global Ireland in June 2018, new Embassies have opened in New Zealand, Colombia, Jordan, Liberia and Chile and new Consulates General in Vancouver, Mumbai, Cardiff, Frankfurt and Los Angeles. This brings to ninety the number of diplomatic Missions in the network. Next year new Embassy openings are planned for Kyiv in Ukraine, Manila in the Philippines and Rabat in Morocco.

My Department has strengthened capacity in the Passport Service by recruiting additional permanent and temporary staff over the past twelve months to respond to a general increase in applications as well as from Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The total number of new permanent staff recruited into my Department since January 2019 is detailed in the table below.

New Starts by Grade 2019