Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
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217. To ask the Taoiseach the participants at the first meeting of the Strategic Economic Advisory Panel which took place during his recent visit to Washington DC. [16610/25]

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I travelled to Austin and Washington D.C. as part of the Government’s St. Patrick’s Day global outreach. My extensive programme included political, economic, cultural and community engagements. My programme included a meeting in Washington DC with a number of participants in Strategic Economic Advisory Panel. This was the first engagement with participants of the Group.

The US based Strategic Economic Advisory Panel is a specific commitment in the Programme for Government and its establishment allows the Government to hear from senior US-based businesspeople on key economic challenges and opportunities for Ireland. At what is a turbulent moment for the international trading environment, the views of private sector stakeholders can assist the Government’s efforts to identify opportunities, navigate challenges and ensure Ireland’s competitiveness into the future.

The Panel is designed to be a flexible structure, to ensure that the Government can draw on the analysis and expertise of senior US-based experts with links to Ireland on specific business and economic issues as and when relevant; as such there is no official membership, and formal terms of reference are not envisioned.

Participants at the recent meeting were drawn from recommendations from our diplomatic network and State agencies in the United States. In establishing the panel, the Government drew on similar models used in the past to draw on expertise and experience from our diaspora. The Global Irish Network is one such example.

Participants attend in a personal capacity based on their experience and not as representatives of any given entity or company. As such it is not appropriate to release the names of the individual attendees.