Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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162. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the total costs of accommodation and travel expenses, associated with his recent foreign trip, or foreign trips by Ministers for State at his Department, for St Patrick’s Day; and if a breakdown can be provided on travel costs, accommodation costs, country/state visited, number of departmental staff accompanying him, and the duration of the trip, in tabular form. [14739/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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This year’s St Patrick’s Day 2023 programme saw the widest yet engagement by Ireland with Ministers reaching out to partner governments and Irish communities on every continent. In all, 36 representatives of the State brought Ireland’s message to 74 cities in 44 countries.

St Patrick’s Day offers an unmatched opportunity to promote Ireland abroad. It is an important part of the government’s ‘Global Ireland’ strategy which seeks to promote Ireland as an outstanding location to live, visit, work, invest in, trade with and study.

This year, St Patrick’s Day marked ‘100 Years of Ireland in the World’, a century of our country’s engagement as an active member of the international community in the promotion of democracy, peace and security. Ministers acknowledged a number of important milestones which occurred this year: The centenary of Ireland’s joining the League of Nations, the fiftieth anniversary of our accession to the then EEC, and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

In my own case I travelled to Australia as part of a St Patrick’s Day Trade Mission led by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, where I carried out a series of engagements in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth. Australia is the second largest export market for Enterprise Ireland clients in AsiaPac, growing by 28% in 2021. The trade mission was focused on promoting Irish innovation and collaboration between Irish companies and companies in Australia. The duration of the mission was for 10 days. I was accompanied by my special advisor and two members of staff of my Department, including the Secretary General.

My colleague, Minister Calleary travelled to France where he carried out a series of engagements in Paris, Strasbourg and Lyon. The duration of Minister Calleary's trip was 7 days and he was accompanied by 1 member of staff of the Department

Minister Richmond travelled to Spain and Portugal where he attended events in both Madrid and Lisbon. The trip lasted for 4 days and the Minister was accompanied by 1 member of staff

The costs incurred in respect of these trips relate to flights (including internal flights within Australia), , accommodation and other transport costs for myself, Ministers Calleary and Richmond and the aforementioned staff. The costs incurred so far are set out in the following table:

Final costs in relation to the Saint Patrick's Day events have not been finally determined as a number of invoices, particularly in relation to accommodation costs, have yet to be received.