St. Patrick’s Day offers a unique opportunity to promote Ireland’s economic and political interests overseas, with levels of publicity and media attention unmatched by the national day of any other country. Ministerial visits around the St. Patrick’s Day period are organised to ensure that we use this exposure to maximise the promotion of Ireland’s trade, tourism and investment interests and to spread a positive message about Ireland’s economic recovery. The proposed programme of Ministerial travel is drawn up by my Department in consultation with the Embassy network and the state agencies and then considered by Government on my recommendation. Each year, Enterprise Ireland also organises a series of trade missions for its client companies, with the active support of my Department’s Embassy network.
Since 2011, there have been 47 Ministerial visits as part of the St. Patrick’s Day programme, (including travel by the Taoiseach and the Attorney General). The following table shows the number of visits each year, the number of countries visited and the number of individual company engagements (to note: the number of visits over the St Patrick’s Day period in 2011 was significantly reduced, due to the timing of the General Election of that year).
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Year
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-
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2011
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2012
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2013
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St. Patrick’s Day Visits
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9
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18
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20
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Countries Visited
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8
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15
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21
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Individual Company Meetings
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17
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43
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70
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Company meetings during St. Patrick’s Day Ministerial visits are a key marketing tool for the state agencies, including the IDA. They provide, at first hand, an opportunity for Ministers to reinforce the Government’s commitment to foreign direct investment as well as policies that highlight Ireland’s competitive operating environment and have contributed to strong FDI growth with the creation of over 12,722 new jobs by IDA client companies in 2012.
As well as individual meetings with companies, the St. Patrick’s Day period is also used to promote trade, tourism and investment at larger business events and to promote Ireland in the international media.
In 2013 for example, the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Ministers and Embassy network, together with the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and other state agencies promoted trade and investment in Ireland to 101 business events, attended by over 8,500 Irish and international company representatives leading to new leads for Irish exporters and for inward investment to Ireland.
In addition, The Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Ministers and the Embassy network promoted key messages on trade, tourism and investment in op-eds and interviews in the international media – reaching, at a very conservative estimate, over 16.3 million people.
