IRELAND
Irish Independent
By Jody Corcoran
Sunday February 05 2012
The Government’s stated reason for the closure of our embassy at the Vatican is questionable.
Eamon Gilmore, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, said the reason had to do with cost cutting, and was unrelated to a row between Ireland and the Vatican regarding co-operation with a child sex abuse inquiry.
The timing of the closure, in the immediate aftermath of the Cloyne Report, was certainly unfortunate from the Government’s point of view, that is, if it expects people to accept its motivation was entirely as presented.
There are two Irish embassies in Rome, one to Italy, the other to the Vatican. The intention now is for diplomatic relations with the Vatican to be conducted from Dublin, an exercise that may well involve frequent — and expensive — trips to the Vatican by our man in, eh, Dublin.
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