THE FULL LIST of where Government ministers will travel to for St Patrick’s Day has been released, with 11 politicians set to visit the United States this year.
It is tradition for ministers and ministers of state to travel to different places around the world to mark St Patrick’s Day.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin brought the plan to Cabinet today outlining which country each minister will travel to.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will travel to Washington D.C, while the Tánaiste Micheál Martin will visit Vancouver, Ottawa, and Toronto in Canada.
Green party leader Eamon Ryan is to travel to Brazil.
Finance Minister Micheal McGrath will visit China, while Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe will go to France and Bulgaria.
In light of the US government’s support of Israel, pressure has been mounting on ministers to boycott the St Patrick’s Day trip to the White House, with Sinn Féin also facing similar pressure.
However, it is the government’s view that the week running up to St Patrick’s Day is the flagship event of its ‘Global Ireland’ strategy which aims to promote Ireland as a great place to visit, live, work, study and invest.
The other locations and ministers are below:
In addition to the above the Attorney General, Rossa Fanning will visit Washington and Boston.
Last year saw ministers and officials visiting 70 cities across 41 countries.
The government plans to match this in 2024.
The theme for 2024 will be ‘Ireland’s Future in the World’, with a focus on young people, and building on progress during the first century of our independence.
While in Washington, Varadkar will meet with US President Joe Biden – the second US president he has met as Taoiseach, having already met with Donald Trump for previous celebrations.
Varadkar is also set to attend the Irish Funds dinner in Washington DC on Wednesday 15 March, a gala dinner which costs $1,000 per plate.
Speaking in the Dáil today, Varadkar said although Ireland had not yet received a formal invite to the White House for St Patrick’s Day this year, he would accept such an invite.
“If I am invited, I will accept and as always, we’ll use it as an opportunity to speak to the US president and the US administration about matters of interest and matters of concern to the Irish people,” he said.
“And those conversations are not always pleasant ones because while we agree on the vast majority of things, we don’t agree on everything.”
“I would point out that the president of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas himself has met President Biden only in the past few months, certainly more recently than I have.
“I don’t think the president of Palestine would refuse an invitation to go to the White House to discuss matters that are happening in Gaza and elsewhere, and I don’t see why we would on that basis.”
Speaking to The Journal, the Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid said that if Irish politicians go to the St Patrick’s Day event in the White House they should raise the plight of Gaza with US president Joe Biden.
Abdalmajid said that she would not tell the Irish government or the opposition to boycott the event and said “it is totally up to the Irish”.
With reporting from Jane Matthews and Press Association.
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