Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 3 together.

In November 2011, the Government announced its decision to close three of Ireland's overseas missions - our embassies in Tehran and to the Holy See, and our Mission in Timor Leste. This decision, taken with the greatest regret and reluctance, was driven by economic factors deriving from our need to cut public expenditure and focus the modest resources of our diplomatic service on economic recovery. The choice of missions for closure followed a comprehensive review of the diplomatic network, in which particular weight was given to the economic return from missions, and their role in rebuilding Ireland's reputation abroad. As regards the Holy See, the logic for closure was based on the fact that the embassy is not involved in consular services or trade promotion and that essential issues of church-State relations could be handled relatively well by a non-resident ambassador.

In a full year, the combined savings from the three closures is estimated at €1.175 million. Net savings in respect of the closure of the Embassy to the Holy See are estimated at €400,000 this year and €845,000 in 2013. These projections take into consideration the relocation of the offices of the Embassy to Italy and the residence of the ambassador to Italy to the State-owned Villa Spada. It is expected that the transfer will be completed during the course of the present year and that the full-year rental savings, amounting to €445,000, will be realised in 2013. A list of the budgets for all overseas missions in 2011 will be provided to the Deputies. This shows that the annual running costs of the majority of our missions is approximately €500,000 per annum per mission.

On the issue of co-location of missions to Italy and the Holy See, for what I understand are historical reasons the Holy See does not accept accreditation from a resident embassy that is also accredited to Italy. It will not accept the appointment of the same person as resident ambassador to both states. Nor will it agree to a country operating its embassy to the Holy See from the same address as its resident Embassy to Italy. This issue of operating our embassies to Italy and to the Holy See from the same premises has been raised with the Holy See and will be further explored.

As I have previously stated in this House, the decision to close the resident Embassy to the Holy See will not be reversed in the immediate term. However, as the economic situation improves and in the context of the regular review of our diplomatic network it may be possible to revisit the matter at some time in the future. If the Holy See were prepared to relax its current requirements so as to allow the State-owned Villa Spada to serve as a location for both our Embassy to Italy and our Embassy to the Holy See, that could be taken into account in any future considerations.

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