Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 December 2025
267. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade for a report on how Ireland has enhanced its diplomatic capacity in 2025; her priorities for 2026; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [73560/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn the context of the more challenging and uncertain international environment, it has never been more important for Ireland to sustain a constructive and ambitious engagement in European and international affairs. The Programme for Government commits to further strengthening Ireland’s place in the world, building on the significant investment in Ireland's global footprint under Global Ireland 2025, and to develop a new Global Ireland 2040 strategy, work on which will begin early next year.
This was the final year of the Global Ireland 2025 strategy and there was significant delivery throughout the year, which served to enhanced Ireland's diplomacy capacity and impact.
The State expanded its mission network by opening three Embassies in Belgrade, Chișinău and Sarajevo. There was significant preparatory work undertaken to open new Consulates General in Malaga and Melbourne and these will become operational in early 2026. We also continued the reinforcement of staff in key locations, not least in Brussels as part of our preparations for our presidency of the European Council in the second semester of 2026.
In August, the Government launched the new Action Plan on Market Diversification, with over 100 actions across Government Departments and State Agencies, with the ultimate objective of supporting businesses to achieve their market diversification ambitions. The actions in this plan will be a core element of our programming around St Patrick’s Day in 2026.
Ireland participated in the G20 this year as a guest country of South Africa’s Presidency. Our participation has been a strong example of our global engagement in action. The Ministerial-level participation, across 18 ministerial meetings as well as the Taoiseach's attendance at the Leaders' Summit, also resulted in significant opportunities for wider bilateral engagements in South Africa.
The Government published the new International Sports Diplomacy Framework in May with the purpose of setting out a vision for Ireland’s approach to international sports diplomacy. A new International Sports Diplomacy Strategy is under development, which will identify time-bound actions to deliver on the commitments of the Framework.
The Ireland-Japan 2025 programme brought new momentum our relations with Japan with the Taoiseach and seven other Ministers visiting Japan, the opening of Ireland House in Tokyo, and Ireland’s successful participation in Expo 2025 in Osaka. Expo attracted over 29 million visitors. Ireland’s Pavilion left a lasting impact and proved immensely popular, operating at maximum capacity on a daily basis.
An important aspect of Global Ireland is the more strategic focus on communicating Ireland to the world. In 2025, we launched the St. Patrick’s Day video campaign, which focused on the theme of “change-makers” within our global diaspora. There was a record 170 million global impressions for our ‘Bloomsday and Beyond’ video campaign. There was extensive communications support for Ireland-Japan 2025, Ireland at the UN and Ireland's participation at the G20.
