Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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69. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will outline, in tabular form, the most recent visit that ambassadors and officials from his Department have taken from their various Embassies of Ireland, where they are permanently based around the world, to countries that particular embassies have secondary accreditation to other nations; the general guidelines that are issued from his Department for officials visiting countries where secondary accreditation is in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34072/13]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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My Department maintains a network of 73 overseas missions consisting of 56 Embassies, 7 multilateral missions, and 10 Consulates General and other offices overseas.Secondary accreditations are an important and cost-effective way of promoting Ireland in countries where we do not have a resident office and of maximising the reach of the Missions network. Thirty-five of our bilateral Embassies carry secondary accreditations in respect of one or more countries. In all some 85 countries are covered by these arrangements.

Servicing these concurrent responsibilities places significant additional demands on the Embassies concerned, which are mostly small. A large proportion has only two diplomatic officers. A number have multiple side accreditations extending over very wide geographic areas. Each of our embassies implements its own business plan which includes a programme of work to support relations with any countries of secondary accreditation, avail of suitable opportunities to promote Irish economic interests and provide consular assistance to Irish citizens. This programme may include a number of visits to the countries in question, as opportunities and needs arise, as well as other contacts.

The schedule of such visits is not maintained centrally and gathering and compiling the data requested by the Deputy in the time available would require a disproportionate diversion of scarce and diminishing staff resources from pressing priority Departmental business.