Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 6 March 2014

Public Accounts Committee

2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance

12:40 pm

Mr. David Cooney:

We did our own internal analysis of the locations we would like to open, before bringing that analysis to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. There is not only an issue of financing here but also the requirement for additional personnel to staff these new missions. Agreement was reached with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on how we should proceed. In an ideal world, we would have liked to reopen the embassy in Tehran, but in a context where we were obliged to focus on priorities, it did not make our final list in this instance. As I said, however, it is very much under consideration.