Brendan Griffin
Question:154. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Health the cost of providing satellite imagery to his Department during the past four years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22981/15]
View answerDepartmental Expenditure
Questions (154)
Written answers
The Department has had no expenditure for satellite imagery.
Passport Applications
Questions (155)
Michael McCarthy
Question:155. Deputy Michael McCarthy asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the progress of a passport application in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22530/15]
View answerWritten answers
The passport application in question was submitted via Passport Express and received in Cork Passport Office on 29 May 2015. Currently Passport Express renewal applications are taking approximately 11 working days to issue. This means that the passport is due to issue in or around 14 June 2015.
Official Engagements
Questions (156)
Paul Murphy
Question:156. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on his recent visit to South Africa. [22602/15]
View answerWritten answers
During the week commencing 25 June 2015, I led a four-day Enterprise Ireland trade mission to South Africa, as part of a drive to increase Irish exports and economic links to the country and wider sub-Saharan region.
Advancing Ireland’s trade, tourism, education and investment objectives, and economic diplomacy more generally, is an important aspect of Ireland’s foreign policy and of the work of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and its Embassy network. While the majority of Irish services and merchandise exports go to Europe and the US and we must continue to cultivate these markets, the Government is strongly focused on the further development of trading partnerships with other important emerging markets. As in all priority markets, a Local Market Team in Pretoria, chaired by the local Ambassador and consisting of representatives of the Embassy and relevant State agencies took forward the detailed planning of the trade mission on the ground.
I also visited the Vuyani Primary School in the Gugulethu Township on the outskirts of Cape Town, where I met with the children participating in the Amawele schools-twinning project which has been supported by my Department, and joined the children for a video-call with their twin-school in Ireland, St Columba's National School in the North Strand, Dublin. Ireland’s programme of cooperation with South Africa provides support in addressing a range of challenges faced there. Funding in 2015 will be in the order of €2.8 million.
The trade mission was undertaken in line with Ireland’s Africa Strategy which was launched in September 2011. The Africa Strategy provides a comprehensive framework for the development and management of Ireland’s official engagement with Africa, recognising that our relations with African countries are becoming more multi-faceted, encompassing political, economic and development cooperation aspects, and that exchanges in areas such as trade, investment and people-to-people links will continue to increase.
34 Irish companies took part in the trade mission which focused on key sectors where Irish companies have particularly strong capabilities including technology, telecommunications, aviation, engineering, energy, and financial services. Company participation in the trade mission showed significant regional diversity with ten counties represented.
The importance of this trade mission is underpinned by the fact that the Africa region now represents a $2 trillion economy and is the second fastest-growing region in the world after South East Asia.
It was a robust and successful mission with an immediate result of contracts worth over €12 million for Irish companies. Furthermore, dozens of leads for Irish exporting companies were created or progressed during the mission with participants engaging in over 200 one-to-one meetings with South African companies.
A number of contracts and partnership signings were also announced during the trade mission, including partnership agreements between College Ireland Aviation Services (CIAS) and Mega Aviation Training Academy (MATA), Johannesburg, for the delivery of aviation training and academic programmes in Southern Africa, and between AuBren DAQS and Voltas Technologies, to introduce AuBren’s special brand of precision air handling systems to Africa. The latter is understood to have a value of €3 million to €5 million over the next four years and should see AuBren increase its international staffing by fifty per cent.
Northern Ireland Issues
Questions (157)
Paul Murphy
Question:157. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on his meeting with the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on 20 May 2015. [22603/15]
View answerWritten answers
On 19 May, I met with Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers MP, in Dublin. We discussed a range of legacy and political issues. It was an opportunity also for the Secretary of State and me to discuss the current political impasse within the Northern Ireland Executive.
At that meeting, I again raised with Secretary of State Villiers the issue of access by an independent international judicial figure to original documents in the possession of the British Government relating to the Dublin-Monaghan bombings. I also briefed her on my recent meeting with Justice for the Forgotten on 15 May, on the eve of ceremonies in Dublin to mark the 41st anniversary of the bombings.
The Secretary of State assured me that she is actively considering how her Government can respond to the issue of access to the relevant documents.
We discussed the case of the late Pat Finucane. I made clear that the Irish Government considers there was a political commitment made at the highest level by both Governments at Weston Park in 2001 in relation to the holding of public inquiries in a number of controversial cases and that this commitment remains unfulfilled in the case of Pat Finucane. The Secretary of State repeated that the De Silva Review of December 2012 and Prime Minister Cameron’s apology in Parliament constitute the British Government’s response to this case.
I also outlined, as I had in the Seanad Éireann on 14 May, the Irish Government’s serious concerns in relation to any proposal to replace the 1998 UK Human Rights Act without taking account of the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement.
The Secretary of State and I discussed and welcomed the then approaching visit of TRH the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall to Ireland and Northern Ireland. I believe the visit served as a further important contribution to building peace and reconciliation on this island.
Since 19 May, I have remained in close contact with the Secretary of State and with the Northern Ireland Executive Parties. I represented the Government, together with Minister of State Seán Sherlock, at the Review meeting of the Stormont House Agreement which took place in Belfast on 2 June where in addition to the Review roundtable meeting, Minister Sherlock and I also had bilateral meetings with each of the Northern Ireland Executive political parties and with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, who was accompanied by NIO Parliamentary Under-Secretary Ben Wallace, MP.
Certificate of Irish Heritage
Questions (158)
Paul Murphy
Question:158. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of certificates of Irish heritage that were issued in 2014 and in 2015 to date. [22604/15]
View answerWritten answers
Since 1 January 2014, a total of 524 Certificates of Irish Heritage have been issued, 391 in 2014 and 133 in 2015, up to 31 May. These figures include 37 presentation Certificates issued to various individuals during the period in question.