Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I reject in the strongest terms the allegation by the Deputy that I have any bias against the Catholic Church. I hold no bias against the Catholic Church or any church and the Deputy should withdraw his allegation.

On a number of occasions I have set out the reasons for taking this decision. It has been necessary given the financial circumstances in which we find ourselves. Limited resources are available to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for our diplomatic service. We have a small diplomatic service with 340 diplomatic staff to cover the entire world across 73 missions. In the present climate and with the resources available to us, it is not possible for us to spread ourselves as thinly. We are being pulled in a number of different directions to service varying needs, particularly the country's trade needs. For example, we have all heard of the need to extend our reach into the Brazil, Russia, India and China, BRIC, group of countries in particular. I am mindful that we have only two resident embassies in South America but we need more. In these circumstances we have had to cut our cloth to suit our measure. Regrettably, we have had to reduce the number of resident embassies abroad. We examined the matter and we decided to close three, one of which was in the Holy See. We can service our requirements to the Vatican and the Holy See by having a non-resident ambassador. In recognition of the importance many people in the country, including myself, attach to our diplomatic mission to the Holy See, we specifically decided to appoint the most senior diplomat in the diplomatic service, the Secretary General of the Department, as the non-resident ambassador to the Holy See.

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