Fine Gael call for cuts on embassy expenditure
Fine Gael TD John O’Mahony today called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs to reduce expenditure on Irish embassies and consulates worldwide. O’Mahony’s call was prompted by figures released by the Department of Foreign Affairs, at Mr. O’Mahony’s request, which show that the state has spent €180m on the administration of Ireland's embassies and consulates abroad in the last three years.
Deputy O’Mahony, who represents the Mayo constituency, said: “The spending of €180m over three years is a huge amount. While I recognise that costs were cut in 2009, I believe that further savings can be made. Fianna Fáil are fond of telling taxpayers, particularly civil servants, they must do ‘more with less’. It is high time that the Minister for Foreign Affairs took some of this advice from his ministerial colleagues”.
“I will be calling on the Minister where further savings can be made and what plans he has put in place to rationalise our diplomatic services abroad while, at the same time, not affecting services.”
As acknowledged by Deputy O’Mahony, there were cuts in expenditure in 2009. Administrative costs have dropped from approximately €62m to €57m, a reduction of roughly eight per cent. However, the following figures, which raise some questions about the Department of Foreign Affairs expenditure in relation to international embassies, were released in December of last year:
- Nine senior diplomats with the Department of Foreign Affairs had more than €230,000 in private school fees for their children paid for by the taxpayer during the preceding two years.
- Diplomats can receive rent allowances of up to €8,000 a month. The London embassy being the most expensive of all paying out over €1.55m in rental allowance since 2008.
- 17 officials in London also claimed more than €128,593 in entertainment expenses during 2008.
The table below includes the administrative costs of operating the department’s international missions. These figures do not include the €74m spent by the department on salaries for Irish diplomatic staff based in foreign missions over the last three years, or the salaries of Irish based staff assigned to these missions. Nor do they include the cost of additional staff which may be required to engage in programme activities in Irish Aid Programme countries or staff who are hired to provide specific services such as security. Finally, “significant capital expenditure” relating to premises or upgrading of infrastructure is not included in the table.
Mission
Locally Employed staff
Irish Based
Staff
2007
2008
2009
ABU DHABI
(opened 2009)
3
2
429,990
ABUJA
6
6
260,424
548,135
372,660
ADDIS ABABA
5
4
1,199,888
1,064,185
898,000
ANKARA
4
3
412,851
429,022
405,487
ATHENS
4
3
532,525
477,093
484,116
BEIJING
13
8
789,116
838,728
973,084
BERLIN
6
6
999,025
1,181,612
1,009,825
BERNE
3
2
331,968
463,006
507,174
BOSTON
3
2
365,638
353,824
472,391
BRASILIA
4
2
540,443
510,761
450,012
BRATISLAVA
3
2
384,325
380,840
416,857
BRUSSELS(EMBASSY)
4
2
864,474
852402
955,926
BRUSSELS (P.F.P.)
0
6
338,430
273,685
274,137
BRUSSELS (PR-EU)
6
81
3,582,121
3,457,843
3,805,678
BUCHAREST
5
2
566,044
577,947
484,421
BUDAPEST
4
1
485,572
511,156
495,581
BUENOS AIRES
3.6
2
351,725
372,254
383,751
CAIRO
6
5
445,209
569,536
500,311
CANBERRA
7.5
4
742,471
743,869
681,238
CARDIFF (closed 2009)
0
0
213,966
182,170
79,757
CHICAGO
3.4
2
383,173
358,542
325,799
COPENHAGEN
4
2
540,031
476,526
430,412
DAR ES SALAAM
5
4
819,916
1,242,513
1,049,784
DILI
2
3
205,402
189,962
211,483
EDINBURGH
1
3
319,133
261,682
227,646
FREETOWN
1
2
197,673
204,871
215,114
GENEVA
3
9
1,124,538
1,096,146
1,134,003
HANOI
5
4
609,377
743,614
580,390
HELSINKI
3
2
655,345
634,690
637,618
HOLY SEE
3
2
740,532
498,334
437,683
KAMPALA
5
4
1,376,603
1,915,553
1,338,000
KUALA LUMPUR
5
2
380,607
418,700
359,821
LILONGWE
2
4
413,536
717,165
623,196
LISBON
3
2
496,611
548,396
437,493
LJUBLJANA
4
2
454,887
489,219
428,186
LONDON
11
52
5,610,590
4,669,648
4,065,867
LUASKA
5
4
1,293,799
1,499,747
1,586,698
LUXEMBOURG
4
2
716,923
709,845
738,042
MADRID
8
7
1,242,986
1,273,566
1,239,494
MAPUTO
5
4
1,377,425
1,717,913
1,427,000
MASERU
3
2
700,082
795,256
523,259
MEXICO
5
3
696,226
598,562
475,576
MOSCOW
10
9
970,958
896,238
873,407
NEW DELHI
8
7
669,453
839,809
611,455
NEW YORK - C.G.
13
5
2,281,554
1,903,026
1,920,283
NEW YORK- PMUN
6
10
2,443,225
2,681,074 *1
1,546,199
NICOSIA
3
2
406,801
428,485
417,208
OSCE - VIENNA
3
3
455,567
459,195
434,483
OSLO
3
2
715,292
787,891
634,870
OTTAWA
4
3
658,038
605,680
700,330
PARIS
12
10
1,867,828
1,852,135
1,804,602
PRAGUE
6
2
524,173
573,544
604,233
PRETORIA
8.5
4
1,407,145
1,318,279
968,255
RAMALLAH
4
2
419,099
373,828
286,792
RIGA
3
2
437,135
438,808
372,586
RIYADH
8
2
404,299
386,430
547,777
ROME
7.8
5
1,292,690
1,270,120
1,202,705
SAN FRANCISCO
4
2
500,358
628,525
417,187
SEOUL
4
2
643,540
767,822
438,633
SHANGHAI
4
3
512,507
466,888
511,801
SINGAPORE
4
3
913,131
865,908
805,922
SOFIA
4
2
617,814
452,737
425,518
STOCKHOLM
4
2
458,461
426,780
435,176
STRASBOURG
3
3
523,150
454,730
439,469
SYDNEY
3
2
546,538
511,344
489,353
TALLINN
3
2
445,663
426,396
352,791
TEHRAN
4
2
315,881
361,419
347,641
TEL AVIV
4
2
666,237
574,527
737,733
THE HAGUE
5
4
1,066,280
1,079,734
949,973
TOKYO
8
3
1,543,374
1,604,708
2,079,774 *2
VALLETTA
2
1
369,535
329,452
330,122
VIENNA
5
3
677,684
664,055
633,729
VILNIUS
3
2
677,347
545,639
452,692
WARSAW
4.4
4
909,879
996,352
713,657
WASHINGTON DC
8
12
1,540,392
1,268,050
1,250,786
TOTAL
356.2 * 3
386
61,642,638
62,088,126
57,310,102
*1 Operating costs for PMUN New York in 2008 reflects rent costs paid in advance for 2009 (which achieved significant savings).
*2 Operating costs for Embassy Toyko in 2009 reflects rent costs paid in advance for 2010 (which achieved significant savings).
*3 The total figure for locally employed staff includes staff employed directly by the Department of Foreign Affairs and also staff who are employed through agencies either privately or state run. For example in Embassy Beijing, 12 local staff are provided by the Chinese Diplomatic Service Bureau who is their direct employer.