Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 24 June 2021

Public Accounts Committee

2018 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8 - Control of Humanitarian Assistance Funding
2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade

In addition, we have a network of 90 honorary consuls. Some of them are honorary consuls in countries where we do not have embassies and some of them are honorary consuls in cities where we do not have consulates. It is hard to overstate the role they play in helping us repatriate our citizens. There is an honorary consul in Perth, Lagos and Lima in Peru, where we do not have missions and where we were not able to travel as we would have wanted and they were absolutely critical in organising repatriations. Our honorary consul in Lima in Peru met our citizens coming in on buses from different parts of the country and ensured they were put on a plane safely and returned home. They work for a modest stipend, which I think is in the order of approximately €1,000 or €1,500 per annum. Some of them provide a high volume of consular products, such as a visa service, and they retain some of the processing fee in order to cover their costs. Some of them maintain offices and a secretariat to help provide services to Irish citizens.