MINISTERS

are travelling to destinations as varied as Japan, Hungary and New Zealand. And of course Enda will visit the only world leader to have had a worse 2017 than he – Donald Trump.

Seán Canney is visiting Communist (kind of) China. Yet no minister is visiting President Vladimir Putin in Russia. There is a vast programme for St Patrick’s week in Russia by Irishweek.ru. Russia is the sixth largest economy. Winston Churchill said: ‘Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.’ The same might be said of our Government’s St Patrick’s Day visit policy and its policy on Russia.