Irish embassies around Europe are to be slimmed down as part of a cost-cutting exercise, the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs has told an Oireachtas committee.
Secretary general David Cooney said the department was reviewing its structures and planned to introduce a “lighter structure” at diplomatic missions in some EU countries.
Mr Cooney said there were no plans to close missions in EU countries as each member state had a say in the formulation of European laws that applied in Ireland and it was important to have someone “on the ground”.
However, some missions would be cut back to one-person operations, and savings would also be made by cutting back on the use of Government-owned cars and using smaller residences for diplomats.
Mr Cooney said the department did not agree with the findings of the McCarthy report, which recommended a substantial cut in diplomatic representation abroad. Overseas missions had an essential party to play in Ireland’s economic recovery, and this had been borne out by the recent global forum in Farmleigh.
“In the current situation, where we’re trying to get out of the recession with export-led growth, this is not the time to be cutting back on your diplomatic representation,” he the public accounts committee today.
If the money was available, he would like to have a bigger representation in south-east Asia and more consulates in Chinese cities, he added.
He also defended the amounts expended on foreign service allowances for diplomats, which accounted for about €8 million of the €98 million wage bill of the department in 2008.
These allowances paid on the basis that diplomats received the same treatment abroad as they would at home and involved no extra pay. The money was paid to compensate for the extra costs of living abroad, and the most expensive living costs of some destinations.
He said there was no question of part of these allowances being voluntarily surrendered, in the same manner as judges are making a contribution in lieu of the pension scheme, because that would involve officials putting their hands in their pockets to compensate for the costs of working abroad.
Brendan Rogers, director of the Development Cooperation Division, said Ireland had donated €20 million from emergency funding to UN agencies to help with the disaster in Haiti, and a further €3 million had been found in “new money” from other sources. It was likely that more would be donated as the response to the crisis unfolded.