Written answers

Tuesday, 19 January 2010

Department of Foreign Affairs

Diplomatic Representation

9:00 pm

Photo of John O'MahonyJohn O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 665: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the location of each Irish embassy and consular offices globally; the number of staff employed in each; the cost to the State for each in 2007, 2008 and 2009 in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1144/10]

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Irish Diplomatic Network is made up of 75 overseas missions, in addition to offices in Armagh and Belfast. The network consists of 58 Embassies, 7 multilateral missions and 10 Consulates General and other offices overseas. In addition to their country of primary accreditation, many Ambassadors are also accredited to additional countries on a non-resident basis. A detailed table giving staffing and costs of overseas missions is set out below.

In addition to resident Irish missions, there are also 19 Honorary Consuls General and 68 Honorary Consuls who provide assistance to Irish citizens in 57 countries.

The staff numbers for each Mission are broken down between locally employed staff and Irish based civil servants, who are on temporary diplomatic assignment abroad. While most of the 386 Irish based diplomatic staff serving overseas are from my Department, approximately 90 are from other Government Departments.

The annual costs as set out in the table below for 2007, 2008 and 2009 are the administrative costs of operating the mission. The figure does not include the salaries of the Irish based staff as these are a charge on the overall salaries budget of the Department rather than on a specific mission. In addition to the administrative costs of operating a mission, many Embassies fund programmes in their respective countries, in particular the missions which fund Irish Aid activities. For example, while in 2008 the Embassy in Ethiopia had administrative costs of €1.1 million, it managed an aid programme of €36 million through the Mission in that year.

The administrative costs of offices in Irish Aid Programme Countries (highlighted in bold) are often high due to issues such as the additional security required in a developing country context. In addition to the normal staffing of Irish Aid offices, which generally consists of a small number of Irish diplomats, working with a maximum of three specialist technical staff from Ireland and a small number of locally-recruited administrative staff (as detailed below), there are often additional staff required to engage in programme activities or staff who are hired to provide specific services such as security (such staff are not included in the following table).

Also, from time to time Missions may incur significant capital expenditure in relation to their premises or for upgrading of essential infrastructure. These capital costs are not included in the annual administrative costs as detailed below.

Mission Staff NumbersAdministrative Costs of Operating Mission
MissionLocally Employed staffIrish BasedStaff200720082009
ABU DHABI(opened 2009)32429,990
ABUJA66260,424548,135372,660
ADDIS ABABA541,199,8881,064,185898,000
ANKARA43412,851429,022405,487
ATHENS43532,525477,093484,116
BEIJING138789,116838,728973,084
BERLIN66999,0251,181,6121,009,825
BERNE32331,968463,006507,174
BOSTON32365,638353,824472,391
BRASILIA42540,443510,761450,012
BRATISLAVA32384,325380,840416,857
BRUSSELS(EMBASSY)42864,474852402955,926
BRUSSELS (P.F.P.)06338,430273,685274,137
BRUSSELS (PR-EU)6813,582,1213,457,8433,805,678
BUCHAREST52566,044577,947484,421
BUDAPEST41485,572511,156495,581
BUENOS AIRES3.62351,725372,254383,751
CAIRO65445,209569,536500,311
CANBERRA7.54742,471743,869681,238
CARDIFF (closed 2009)00213,966182,17079,757
CHICAGO3.42383,173358,542325,799
COPENHAGEN42540,031476,526430,412
DAR ES SALAAM54819,9161,242,5131,049,784
DILI23205,402189,962211,483
EDINBURGH13319,133261,682227,646
FREETOWN12197,673204,871215,114
GENEVA391,124,5381,096,1461,134,003
HANOI54609,377743,614580,390
HELSINKI32655,345634,690637,618
HOLY SEE32740,532498,334437,683
KAMPALA541,376,6031,915,5531,338,000
KUALA LUMPUR52380,607418,700359,821
LILONGWE24413,536717,165623,196
LISBON32496,611548,396437,493
LJUBLJANA42454,887489,219428,186
LONDON11525,610,5904,669,6484,065,867
LUASKA541,293,7991,499,7471,586,698
LUXEMBOURG42716,923709,845738,042
MADRID871,242,9861,273,5661,239,494
MAPUTO541,377,4251,717,9131,427,000
MASERU32700,082795,256523,259
MEXICO53696,226598,562475,576
MOSCOW109970,958896,238873,407
NEW DELHI87669,453839,809611,455
NEW YORK - C.G.1352,281,5541,903,0261,920,283
NEW YORK- PMUN6102,443,2252,681,074 *11,546,199
NICOSIA32406,801428,485417,208
OSCE - VIENNA33455,567459,195434,483
OSLO32715,292787,891634,870
OTTAWA43658,038605,680700,330
PARIS12101,867,8281,852,1351,804,602
PRAGUE62524,173573,544604,233
PRETORIA8.541,407,1451,318,279968,255
RAMALLAH42419,099373,828286,792
RIGA32437,135438,808372,586
RIYADH82404,299386,430547,777
ROME7.851,292,6901,270,1201,202,705
SAN FRANCISCO42500,358628,525417,187
SEOUL42643,540767,822438,633
SHANGHAI43512,507466,888511,801
SINGAPORE43913,131865,908805,922
SOFIA42617,814452,737425,518
STOCKHOLM42458,461426,780435,176
STRASBOURG33523,150454,730439,469
SYDNEY32546,538511,344489,353
TALLINN32445,663426,396352,791
TEHRAN42315,881361,419347,641
TEL AVIV42666,237574,527737,733
THE HAGUE541,066,2801,079,734949,973
TOKYO831,543,3741,604,7082,079,774 *2
VALLETTA21369,535329,452330,122
VIENNA53677,684664,055633,729
VILNIUS32677,347545,639452,692
WARSAW4.44909,879996,352713,657
WASHINGTON DC8121,540,3921,268,0501,250,786
TOTAL356.2 * 338661,642,63862,088,12657,310,102

*1 Operating costs for PMUN New York in 2008 reflects rent costs paid in advance for 2009 (which achieved significant savings).

*2 Operating costs for Embassy Toyko in 2009 reflects rent costs paid in advance for 2010 (which achieved significant savings).

*3 The total figure for locally employed staff includes staff employed directly by the Department of Foreign Affairs and also staff who are employed through agencies either privately or state run. For example in Embassy Beijing, 12 local staff are provided by the Chinese Diplomatic Service Bureau who is their direct employer.

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