68. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the Departments plans to expand Ireland's diplomatic presence across South Africa. [56922/26]

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1993, Ireland has developed close economic, political and people-to-people ties with South Africa. The warm relations between our countries are reflected in South Africa’s invitation to Ireland to participate as a guest country in the G20 during the South African G20 Presidency in 2025. Last year, we also welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa on an official visit to Ireland.

Ireland and South Africa enjoy strong trade and investment flows in both directions. Our Embassy in Pretoria and the state agencies work closely together to promote Irish business interests. This includes local market team collaboration and mutual support to ensure successful trade and investment missions to South Africa.

Given business needs in South Africa, an Enterprise Ireland office is located in Cape Town and IDA Ireland and Bord Bia share a representative based in Johannesburg. The Embassy of Ireland in Pretoria regularly conducts political, economic, community and cultural outreach across South Africa including in the Cape Town area in view of the importance of the city and its wider region.

The Programme for Government sets out an ambition for a new Global Ireland 2040 Strategy as a successor to the current strategy, Global Ireland 2025 which aimed to double Ireland’s footprint and impact by 2025. Under the Global Ireland Strategy 2025, Ireland’s diplomatic footprint has expanded significantly with the opening of 27 new diplomatic missions globally, including two new Embassies in Africa, in Morocco and in Senegal.

There are no plans at present to expand our diplomatic presence across South Africa. Consideration of the location of future new Irish missions, including whether to establish missions in EU candidate and potential candidate countries, will be undertaken in the context of the new strategy. It will include an analysis of how any potential new missions might contribute to the promotion of our economic interests, our values in a changing and uncertain international landscape, the promotion of our culture and the building of stronger links with our diaspora.