Foreign service agency closes after 30 years

A 30-year tradition of sending volunteers to work in the developing world has come to a quiet end with the winding up of the Agency for Personal Service Overseas (APSO).

Without fanfare or publicity, the 11-member APSO board, chaired by accountant Mr John Murphy, met for the last time last Tuesday and voted to put the company into liquidation.

Mr Pearse Farrell of Farrell Grant Sparks was appointed liquidator.

The agency has been largely subsumed into the Government's development programme, Development Co-operation Ireland (DCI). Most APSO staff have joined DCI, although a number availed of a severance package.

At its peak, the agency operated up to 20 offices in the developing world but these have been closed in recent years.

It also phased out the direct funding of long-term placements. More than 10,000 Irish doctors, nurses, technicians and other specialists have been sent on two-year placements with APSO since it was set up in 1974.

To compensate for the demise of APSO, the Department of Foreign Affairs has channelled new resources in support of the work of Irish missionaries abroad.

Earlier this month, the Minister of State for Development Co-operation, Mr Tom Kitt, announced €11 million support for missionary development work this year.

Mr Kitt has also launched a new initiative, "Volunteer 21", to take up work previously done by APSO, such as the management of volunteer registers for specialist staff overseas.

The integration of APSO into DCI, which operates under the umbrella of the Department of Foreign Affairs, was recommended in a review of the Government's development programme in 2002.

The review committee rejected APSO's argument that it should be allowed continue as an independent body and be given responsibility for resourcing non-governmental organisations.

Prior to this, a consultancy report found that the agency was becoming obsolete.

APSO was suffering from ineffective leadership, low staff morale and poor communications, it reported.