What are the Tánaiste's views on the situation in Sri Lanka? It is an awfully long way away, but there has been an economic collapse there. Things are pretty serious and sometimes what happens in countries like that can have an impact here, eventually.

Based on information provided by the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) to my Department, there are currently two whole-term staff vacancies in the OPR. A detailed breakdown as requested is included in the table below.

It should be noted that arrangements have been put in place by all bodies under the aegis of my Department to facilitate the provision of information directly to members of the Oireachtas. This provides a speedy, efficient and cost effective system to address queries directly to the relevant bodies. The contact email address for the Office of the Planning Regulator is oireachtas@opr.ie.

I thank the Tánaiste for his response. I am sure he is aware of the humanitarian crisis that has developed in the country. There is a shortage of fuel and food. The 21 million people there are under intense pressure. There are long queues for fuel. Basics like milk, baby powder and so on are not available on the streets. Serious riots occurred in autumn. Are many Irish citizens based in Sri Lanka at the moment?

As I said, the country is continuing to respond to a severe economic crisis, which escalated in 2022 due to the high debt burden and also the pandemic-related fall in tourist numbers and this lead to the suspension of foreign debt payments in April 2022.

There is a small Irish community in Sri Lanka. We continue to provide consular assistance and advice to Irish citizens in Sri Lanka through our embassy in New Delhi and our honorary consul in Colombo. A number of consul visits to Sri Lanka have been undertaken to support Ireland's on-the-ground response to the current economic crisis. The Department currently advises Irish citizens to exercise a high degree of caution when travelling to the country.

With respect to our supports, we operate primarily as part of the European context. As I said, Sri Lanka benefits from the EU's GSP+ arrangement, which supports its economic development through trade.

I again thank the Tánaiste.

One of the issues that is developing there is that people are desperate to leave and they are selling what they have, including property and whatever else. They are mortgaging houses to get out and try to get to Europe and the traffickers are taking advantage of that. Would the Tánaiste bring that to the table in the EU so that it is aware of that and of the pressures people are under and to see what more can be done to assist the people there to get out of this shocking crisis they are in? It is leading to a major humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka with rising inflation, currency collapse and so on.

I thank the Deputy again for his insightful and detailed presentation of the case. I was about to say earlier that the focus of the EU's approach with Sri Lanka has been the generalised scheme of preferences plus arrangement, which aims to support Sri Lanka's economic development through increased trade with the EU, as well as by diversifying its exports and attracting investment. That system and the benefits of it are granted on the condition that Sri Lanka implements 27 international conventions on human rights, labour conditions, protection of the environment and good governance.

The EU is Sri Lanka's third most important trading partner and its second most important export destination, with a 13.6% share of Sri Lanka's overall trade. I will work with and talk to Josep Borrell about the broader issue of trafficking, smuggling and the pressure on citizens to see what the EU can do on the Common Security and Defence Policy side and in humanitarian interventions to see what we can do to curtail the work of the traffickers.