Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the all-party motion on the Order of Business today with regard to Pastor Jousef Nadarkhani. That issue was taken up by the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade and me with the Iranian ambassador only two weeks ago. He undertook to revert to us with a comprehensive reply to our queries. In this context, I also welcome the letter I received from the Tánaiste which expressed his concerns on this and other human rights issues in Iran. Therefore, I was greatly surprised to learn, on the day I received this letter, that he had decided to close the Irish Embassy in Iran, as well as two other embassies. Iran is a country with which Ireland had €86 million of trade last year, €82 million of which was in exports. Ireland has embassies in many countries with which we do not have anything like the level of trade we enjoy with Iran. The reasons advanced do not hold water when one examines the position with regard to other embassies. Like many people, I was appalled to see the closure of the embassy to the Holy See.