Our Strategy and Guiding Principles

The mission of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is to serve Ireland, promote our values and advance our prosperity and interests abroad, and to provide the government with the capabilities, analysis and influence to ensure that Ireland derives the maximum benefit from all areas of its external engagement.

The department's Strategy Statement focuses on how we implement the commitments assigned to us in the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future and meet international challenges. We have identified six high-level goals to guide our work in our DFAT Statement of Strategy 2024-2025 which are as follows:

• supporting peace and reconciliation at home
• serving our communities
• driving the European agenda
• strengthening and protecting the global multilateral system
• enhancing Ireland’s global engagement and prosperity
• strengthening DFA’s effectiveness

This Statement of Strategy is informed by The Global Island: Ireland’s Foreign Policy for a Changing World which has provided the basis for the Global Ireland Strategy, allowing us to dramatically expand the scope and impact of Ireland’s global engagement, and A Better World, Ireland’s policy for international development.

Read our DFAT Statement of Strategy 2024-2025.