Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence
Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach
Mr. Martin Fraser:
It includes posts at assistant secretary, counsellor and first secretary in the Department of Foreign Affairs, which are the grades from which ambassadors are drawn. Obviously, not everybody in the Department of Foreign Affairs works abroad and not everybody is a head of mission. In principle, however, people can enter the Department of Foreign Affairs and become heads of mission in that way. I think that is the best way to do it.