State Visits
Dail Éireann — 2024-10-10
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

On that latter point, I met with Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds. He is very much on top of his brief early on. Ireland stands ready to facilitate the warmest of relations between the United Kingdom and the EU because that is also of benefit to Ireland and to Europe. We will continue to be supportive of sensible and intelligent reviews of existing trade agreements between the European Union and the United Kingdom.
As I said earlier, the idea of the honorary consuls is not a bad one. I will review that and go back to my Department on it. As the Deputy knows, we recently opened a new consulate in Lyons, which is a major diplomatic initiative.
On education, the dual qualifications from Irish and French institutions has grown from 45 to 60 since 2021. France is Ireland's seventh largest export market and our third highest source of imports. In November 2022, when I was Taoiseach, I met with President Macron in Paris. An integrated sail-rail ticket idea between French and Irish cities was announced. The idea being that, for the young people of France and Ireland, an integrated sail and rail ticket would really power the dynamic interaction between our young people.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2024-10-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:53:21+00:00
Sitting date: 2024-10-10