Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he has reviewed the effectiveness of having a non-resident ambassador to the Holy See; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15599/13]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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The Government decision in November 2011 to close our resident embassies to the Holy See and Iran and our development office in East Timor was taken with considerable reluctance as part of a necessary budget process to reduce costs. The closure of the resident embassy to the Holy See has yielded substantial savings, not least as it enabled the significantly larger embassy to Italy and the residence of the ambassador to Italy to be relocated to the State-owned Villa Spada, formerly occupied by the embassy to the Holy See, thereby saving €445,000 per annum in rent on two properties.

As the Deputy is aware, the Government decided to appoint the Secretary General of my Department as non-resident ambassador to the Holy See, thereby ensuring that contact with the Holy See is maintained at the highest possible diplomatic level. Ambassador Cooney travels to Rome regularly and was present last week for the inauguration of Pope Francis, to which he accompanied the President and the Minister for Finance who represented the Government and subsequently at the Pope’s meeting with the Diplomatic Corps. I am satisfied that the current arrangement for Ireland’s representation at the Holy See is the most effective possible in light of the resource constraints faced by my Department.

The resident embassy to the Holy See will not be reopened in the immediate term. I will, however, be keeping the deployment of our diplomatic and consular resources under review in light of ongoing national priorities and the availability of resources.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I remind Deputies that we are now dealing with Other Questions and as such they are limited to only one minute for supplementary questions.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Is the diplomatic network reviewed annually? Has the Tánaiste given consideration to a review of the necessity for full ambassadors to some of the international organisations? We have had diplomatic relations with the Holy See since 1929. In the sequence of London, Washington and the then League of Nations, it has been one of Ireland's longest established diplomatic relations and is an important listening post.

Is the Tánaiste, in stating that there are no plans to reopen it in the immediate term, reassuring us that he envisages a permanent resident ambassador being appointed in the medium term? While the Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is an extremely able and competent ambassador he is not the least busy official in the Tánaiste's Department. His position is demanding and challenging. While I acknowledge his competence, commitment and ability, is it unreasonable of us to believe he can devote considerable time to that particular post in view of the huge demands on him.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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As I said at the time, the appointment of the Secretary General of my Department as non-resident ambassador to the Holy See signalled the importance and significance which the Government attaches to our diplomatic relations with the Holy See. We have a small but good diplomatic service. Our representation in terms of the countries wherein we have resident missions and the number of diplomats therein is approximately half that of countries of similar size. We have approximately 75 resident missions, some of which are to the multilateral organisations such as the United Nations, European Union and so on. We have 58 bilateral resident missions. In other words, we are represented in only 58 of the 190 states that are members of the United Nations.

To take Latin America as an example, we have resident ambassadors in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, and that is it. We have to review on an ongoing basis where we have our missions and how best to deploy them. It is something we will be doing again at the conclusion of the Irish Presidency.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Many people noticed that Sweden and Slovenia, two member states of the European Union, closed their embassies in Dublin last year. Given that they did so and clearly did not consider they had such a level of interest, either in trade or otherwise, in dealing with us, is there not a case for closing our missions in countries such as those, certainly in the case of Sweden? As the Tánaiste said, €80 million or so is being spent on our 75 missions. Could those missions not be better placed? The Irish Exporters' Association asked recently that we concentrate more on Latin America, as the Tánaiste rightly mentioned, and on Asia and Africa. If the Swedish do not want to be friends of ours, as in the case of Facebook, why should we be friends of theirs?

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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The Tánaiste outlined previously how he reached that decision and the priorities involved. Does he consider reopening the consulate in the Vatican to be a priority, or is there somewhere else that should be given greater priority?

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Vatican has a relationship with 179 countries and there are 80 resident embassies there. Can the Tánaiste assure us that the idea of a dual location - to have an ambassador accredited to the Holy See as well as to Italy - was considered before the decision was made to appoint a non-resident ambassador?

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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What we need to do is to expand our footprint around the world. One point we mentioned was that in seven of our missions in European Union capitals we operate a mission with one diplomat. It is a very lean operation. What I would like to be able to do, and I hope we will be able to do this as resources become available, is to expand the number of places where we have resident missions. There are parts of the world where we need such missions in order to promote our trade and our country.

As I said in regard to the Holy See, it was always the case that we were going to examine it in light of changing circumstances, availability of resources and so on. That remains the case. The position has always been that both Italy and the Vatican want to have embassies that are located separately, but that is part of a discussion that is ongoing.