The Closure of the Vatican Embassy

15 April 2012

by Cllr Joe Costello

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade made a submission to the Comprehensive Spending Review in July of 2011. Together with other restructuring, it identified the Embassies of the Holy See and Timor Leste for closure.

Later in the autumn, a third Embassy in Iran was added to the list, contrary to some media reports that the Vatican was the last to be included.

The combined savings for the closures is estimated at €1,175 million in a full year. The lion's share of the savings, €845,000, comes from closing the Vatican Embassy.

Secondly, the Embassy is not involved in the normal services such as consular services, trade promotion, or Development Aid.

The Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been appointed as a non-resident Ambassador. This has been accepted by the Vatican, and he will present his credentials on the 4th of May. Seven other EU member states have non-resident Ambassadors to the Holy See -- Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg and Malta. Norway and Switzerland also have non-resident Ambassadors.

The choice of missions for closure followed a comprehensive review of the Diplomatic network in which particular weight was given to the economic return from Missions in these difficult economic times and the Missions role in rebuilding Ireland's reputation abroad.

On the issue of co-location of Missions to Italy and the Holy See, for what I understand are historical reasons, the Holy See does not accept accreditation from a resident Embassy that is also accredited to Italy. It will not accept the appointment of the same person as resident Ambassador to both States. Neither will it agree to a country operating its Embassy to the Holy See from the same address as its resident Embassy to Italy.

This issue of operating our Embassies to Italy and to the Holy See from the same premises has been raised with the Holy See and will be explored further.

The decision to close the resident Embassy to the Holy See will not be reversed in the immediate term. However, as the economic situation improves, and in the context of the regular review or our diplomatic network, it may be possible to revisit the matter at some time in the future. If the Holy See were prepared to relax its current requirements so as to allow the state-owned Villa Spada to serve as a location for both our Embassy to Italy and our Embassy to the Holy See, that is something which could be taken into account in any future considerations.