Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I accept everything the Deputy said with regard to the desirability of maintaining a resident embassy in each of the three states involved. However, the difficulty is that we are operating in circumstances where, in the first instance, we are obliged to reduce costs. In addition, as a result of the reduction in numbers across the public sector, the number of staff available to the Department is declining. We are, therefore, obliged to focus our operations. It is unfortunate that we cannot maintain all of our resident missions and we have been obliged to make some difficult choices. For example, and in view of the fact that we are due to assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in January 2013, we had to decide whether to reduce the number of resident missions in Europe. We have only two resident missions in South America. This is despite the fact that we are involved in a high level of trade there. We also have only a small number of people operating on the ground in Asia.

The conclusion I reached in respect of this matter was that the Holy See could be effectively and adequately serviced by a senior diplomat based in Dublin. Iran can be serviced from an embassy in another jurisdiction in the Middle East region. Our ambassador in Singapore will continue to serve as non-resident ambassador to Timor Leste. I am willing to review the position in respect of these missions when we are in a position, both financially and from the point of view of personnel, to consider reopening them. That is something we can do in the future.

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