13 Noll 2011, 17:23
An Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Eamon Gilmore, TD will come before the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade tomorrow, Wednesday 14th December to discuss plans to close a number of Irish embassies.
Committee Chairman, Pat Breen TD said: “We would like to thank the Tánaiste for agreeing to attend our meeting tomorrow to discuss plans to close three of Ireland’s diplomatic missions – its embassies to the Vatican and Iran and its representative office in Timor Leste. The Tánaiste has said that the decision followed a review of overseas missions and the closures would save around €1.175 million a year. However, concerns have been raised in some quarters about the decision to close the diplomatic missions. Tomorrow, the Tánaiste will have an opportunity to discuss the review of Ireland’s network of diplomatic and consular missions and the rationale behind the closures outlined to date.”
This meeting will take place in Committee Room 4 at 5pm on Wednesday, 14th December.
Committee proceedings can be followed live at:
http://www.oireachtas.ie/ViewDoc.asp?fn=/documents/livewebcast/Web-Live.htm&CatID=83&m=o
For further information please contact:
Ciaran Brennan,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Communications Unit,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2
P: +3531 618 3903
M: 086-0496518
F: +3531 618 4551
Committee Membership
Pat Breen, TD (Chairman)
Eric Byrne, TD
Bernard J Durkan, TD
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, TD
Michael McNamara, TD
Dara Murphy, TD
Dan Neville, TD
Seán Ó Fearghaíl, TD
Maureen O’Sullivan, TD
Senators
Deirdre Clune,
Mark Daly,
Lorraine Higgins,
Michael Mullins,
David Norris,
Jim Walsh.