Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 61: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if other embassies, instead of the Vatican and Italy, could be co-located such as the three in Brussels, the two in Vienna and the two in Northern Ireland, Armagh and Belfast, to bring about even greater savings in view of the fact that the Vatican and Italy are two distinct states and the Villa Spada is a historic building bought and paid for by the Irish people for the purposes of housing a resident ambassador to the Holy See; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13426/12]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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The decision to close Ireland's Embassy to the Holy See, along with the Embassy to Iran and the Irish Development Office in Timor Leste, was made following a comprehensive review of the Mission network and against a background of the need by my Department to reduce its expenditure in the current difficult economic climate. The Government will continue to review our network of diplomatic missions to ensure that it most efficiently and effectively meets Ireland's needs, consistent with the resources available, including further co-location of Missions, where this may be feasible.

I can confirm that the Irish Embassy to Austria and the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the OSCE are already co-located in Vienna. In Belgium, the office of the Permanent Representative to the EU, the Deputy Permanent Representative and the Ambassador to the Political and Security Committee are also co-located. In addition, the roles of Ambassador to Belgium and Head of Delegation to Partnership for Peace are carried out by the same diplomatic officer.

The two offices situated in Northern Ireland perform distinct roles and in both cases are joint institutions established under the Good Friday Agreement; with the British Government in the case of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in Belfast and with the Northern Ireland Civil Service in the case of the North South Ministerial Council in Armagh.

In line with the priority my Department attaches to the promotion of Ireland's economic interests abroad, a large number of Missions overseas participate in an 'Ireland House' arrangement where offices of State Agencies are co-located with Irish Embassies and Consulates. As well as bolstering our effectiveness of promoting trade and investment, these co-location arrangements facilitate cooperation and are cost-effective in terms of managing our scarce resources overseas.