Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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334. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he met the Indian Prime Minister during his recent visit to India for St. Patrick's Day events; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12572/24]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The 2024 St Patrick's Day programme saw the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Government Ministers take part in an extensive international programme to promote Ireland and Irish interests around the world. These visits provided an opportunity for Ministers to promote Irish trade and meet business leaders, to engage with political counterparts and to meet the Irish diaspora in different locations.

As part of this St Patrick’s Day programme, I visited India and Bangladesh and carried out a wide-ranging programme of business and political engagements in Bengaluru Mumbai and Delhi in India as well as Dhaka in Bangladesh. On this occasion I did not meet with the Indian Prime Minister during my visit.

This visit was a key opportunity for Irish companies, it provided a platform to strengthen business collaboration and investment. Accompanied by Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Tourism Ireland I attended a series of engagements with senior representatives from several of India’s leading companies in the ICT, Aviation, Fintech and Lifesciences sectors. My programme included meeting a number of Indian universities and education policymakers as well as senior representatives from Kerry Group, who established operations in India in 2012.