Mr. Niall Burgess:

A single diplomat mission has one assigned officer from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade working with local staff. In the case of the Embassy to the Holy See, I think we have two local staff and a small chancery very close to the Vatican. That mission has done an extraordinarily good job on limited resources in a very limited period. It is an example of what we can do with modest resources. The Global Ireland document refers to looking again at this model. If there is a single assigned diplomat, in respect of sickness or annual leave there are duty of care considerations for us as a Department. That would give us concern about the model and the Global Ireland document does refer to progressively phasing it out and increasing the resources we have in very small embassies.

On the cost cutting, that was done on financial grounds. That is my understanding within the Department and I have never seen any suggestion or evidence to the contrary.