All travel undertaken by Enterprise Ireland staff is necessary to facilitate Enterprise Ireland delivering on its mandate to support and develop indigenous industry. If the objective of the travel can be achieved in an appropriate way through other means Enterprise Ireland staff do not travel. Overseas travel is undertaken for many reasons including, to support due diligence in evaluating investments, trade missions, trade fairs and other promotions, meetings and conferences and for research and policy development purposes.
Enterprise Ireland has a clear corporate travel policy that is designed to meet the business objectives of the agency. The policy lays out clear guidelines for staff in relation to modes of transport and hotels and accommodation that may procured. The work undertaken on overseas travel feeds into the business process for which the travel was undertaken, a specific report is not prepared on each travel itinerary. The relevant Budget Manager approves travel itineraries in advance and Enterprise Ireland’s contracted travel agent will then look for the most competitive and appropriate travel options. This provides a secondary checking system as the travel agent can only procure tickets that fall within the travel policy unless approved in advance by specific exception.