Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 43: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the locations of the Irish embassies and Irish consulate offices worldwide; and the cost of operations for each office. [21888/11]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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The Irish Diplomatic Network is made up of 76 overseas Missions, in addition to offices in Armagh and Belfast. The network consists of 58 Embassies, 7 multilateral Missions and 11 Consulates General and other offices overseas. In addition to their country of primary accreditation, many Ambassadors are also accredited to additional countries on a non-resident basis. The annual costs as set out in the table below for 2010 are the administrative costs of operating each mission. The figures do not include the salaries of the Irish based staff as these are a charge on the overall salaries budget of the Department rather than on a specific Mission.

In addition to the administrative costs of operating a Mission, many Embassies fund programmes in their respective countries, in particular the Missions which fund Irish Aid activities. For example, in 2010, while the Embassy in Mozambique had administrative costs of almost €1 million, it managed an aid programme of €37.5 million through the Mission that year. The administrative costs of offices in Irish Aid Programme Countries (highlighted in bold) are often high due to issues such as the additional security required in a developing country context.

Also, from time to time Missions may incur significant capital expenditure in relation to their premises or for upgrading of essential infrastructure. These capital costs are not included in the annual administrative costs as detailed below.