An Irish trade mission boasting 20 tech firms and the nation's deputy prime minister will touch down in Ottawa next month with the goal of invigorating trade between the two countries.
The mission is being organized by Enterprise Ireland, the Irish government's international trade and technology development agency.
Mary Harney, Ireland's Deputy PM and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, will lead the mission, first to Toronto, then on to Ottawa on Oct. 7 and 8. It is the first Irish trade mission to Canada in more than five years.
David Byrne, senior VP of technology products at Enterprise Ireland, said the idea is to raise Ireland's profile and facilitate discussions between companies in both nations.
"What we would like to do is raise the profile of Ireland and grow trade with Canada," Byrne said from Enterprise Ireland's New York City office.
The trade mission is focusing on financial services software and photonics.
Byrne said financial services software was chosen due to the interest of both governments to develop a secure and reliable infrastructure for e-commerce. The emerging photonics sector, on the other hand, has already been the recipient of significant investment by the Irish government.
He added that Enterprise Ireland has been in contact with a number of its contempories in Canada, from Industry Canada at the federal level to OCRI at the local level. The tight schedule of the trade mission will not allow for many official meetings with local economic development agencies, but Byrne said Irish companies on the mission will have their own schedules and itineraries to network with local firms.
Enterprise Ireland's role, he said, is to find the best fit between Irish and Canadian companies.
He added that the Irish government considers Canada to be the key entry point to expand trade relations throughout the Americas for Irish tech firms. "We see Canada as tech savvy and innovative as a country."
According to Enterprise Ireland, the Emerald Isle is the fourth-largest recipient of Canadian direct investment worldwide and has served as the springboard for many Canadian financial services companies into the European market.
Bilateral trade between Ireland and Canada amounts to $1.5 billion a year. In terms of population, about 3.8 million Canadians, or 14 per cent of the population, boast Irish ancestry.
