asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he is satisfied that the staffing of our embassies abroad is on a sufficiently practical level to help in promoting Irish goods and services.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Embassy Staffs.
1.
Every possible effort is made to ensure that officers appointed to missions abroad are equipped with the necessary skills and information to enable them to assist in promoting Irish goods and services. My Department attach the highest importance to this aspect of their work. I am satisfied that our missions are providing a valuable practical service in this area.
Will the Minister not agree that more could be done in that area? The day of social graces and social functions for diplomats should take second place to industrial promotion work in many of the embassies where we have already one-stop shops.
The Deputy uses somewhat provocative language in his question. The days of social airs and graces are well gone so far as the Irish diplomatic service are concerned. One of their prime functions is the selling of goods and the promotion of Irish trade. Of course, there are other agencies who have that responsibility: in this connection I refer to Córas Tráchtála and others. Where they are established in the country the role of the embassy becomes secondary, but where there is no CTT presence the first obligation of the embassy is to explore possibilities to create markets or expand them for Irish goods and services. They do that effectively in many areas of the world but it is not practical in some areas.
For instance, the embassy in America is situated in Washington but that is not the prime area for selling our goods and services. However, CTT are in other American cities. Obviously more could be done if I had more resources available to me. If the Deputy would vote for more taxes to allow me to have those resources, I should be very glad to open embassies and missions throughout the world to sell more goods. In an open economy such as ours, the surest way to eliminate unemployment is to sell our goods. I should be very glad to have the support of the House in opening new embassies and giving an unqualified mandate to the officers manning the embassies to sell our goods and services.
I have been with the Council of Europe and I know about our embassies. Will the Minister not agree that even with the resources available to him, without looking for additional money, much more could be done?
Having regard to the resources available I do not agree that much more could be done. The officers manning our embassies abroad are dedicated people and they do valuable work in trade promotion and in the export of services. I wish we had more resources so that we could expand that area of activity. The work being done by our embassies and CTT is very valuable.
Will the Minister not agree that there is great need for additional staff, particularly in developing countries in the Third World where we have substantial export opportunities? Having regard to the limited resources available to the Minister, does he not agree that something should be done to increase our representation in these countries for obvious reasons?
I agree with the Deputy that there is huge potential for exports to developing countries in the Third World. Again, we come back to the matter of resources. It might mean shutting embassies in other parts of the world and transferring personnel. For instance, we do not have a resident ambassador in the area between Washington and Buenos Aires, a vast stretch of territory that offers enormous potential for exports. It is a question of stretching the cloth as far as possible. South-east Asia is another area of great wealth and with great potential for our exports and for the sale of Irish services. We have limited representation there, even though we have resident ambassadors in parts of south-east Asia. I wish we were more strongly represented on the ground there. In the meantime, we are doing the best we can.
I am sure the Minister will agree with me that it is a matter of regret that we have at most six people resident in our embassy in China which country has a population of 1.1 billion people.
That is true. There are 1.1 billion people resident in China but in the fifth largest and more open economy in the world, namely, Indonesia, we have no resident representative.