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THE COMBINED SAVINGS generated by the recent closure of three embassies by the Irish State amounts to an estimated €1,175 million annually, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
In a statement today, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs Joe Costello, said that the “lion’s share” of the savings – €845,000 – comes from closing the Vatican Embassy.
In reference to the decision to close the Embassy of the Holy See, Costello said that the move would not be reversed “in the immediate term.” As well as citing the financial motivations behind the decision, Costello pointed out that the Vatican’s embassy had not been involved in the normal services such as consular services, such as trade promotion or development aid.
Costello said that the decision to close certain mission 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”.
The Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs has been appointed as a non-resident Ambassador, a move that has been accepted by the Vatican, and he will present his credentials on the 4 of May.
Currently, seven other EU member states – Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg and Malta – have non-resident Ambassadors to the Holy See.
In July of last year, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade made a submission to the Comprehensive Spending Review, which identified the Embassies of the Holy See and Timor Leste for closure. During the autumn, a third Embassy in Iran was added to the list, he said.
Costello said that the decision to close the resident Embassy to the Holy See would not be reversed in the immediate term – but added that “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.”
On the issue of co-location of Missions to Italy and the Holy See, Costello said:
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.
However, he added that 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.”
Earlier today, the Tuam branch of the Labour party asked delegates to consider pushing for the reopening of the Vatican embassy.
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Looks like il be watching a load of ads
They will be loading them on now and making you wait a minute before they clear.
Just get the ad blocker extension on chrome! It’s free!
Some websites have managed to work around the ad blocker such as TV3 Player so I wonder will YouTube do the same, hopefully not.
I honestly didn’t realise YouTube had ads until I started watching it on my mobile. I’d downloaded ad blocker on my laptop years ago so it came as quite the surprise.
If it came to it, I would happily give up my TV subscription and TV licence and just pay Youtube instead. They deserve it at least. Sky is a bad joke and RTE is the pits.
not to be confused with Red Tube
whats that?
pull the other one Ken….
Pretty sure he is pulling on something
The beginning of the end for you tube, And the chance for someone to set up “New Tube”.
Not sure Google have thought the pricing through. Can’t see many people willing to pay a score a month for Google play music and YouTube. Expect to see a sharp rise in piracy again.
This will be the end of YouTube. The whole reason it became popular was because people could freely be creative and how others their talents.
Adsense and vloggers ruined that. People will not pay to watch that crap that currently dominates YouTube
Just get extensions on your browser, I’m sure there’s ways around it.. 10$ a month is madness.. Can’t see it going anywhere
That works out at € 8.81 over here.
Netflix is better value.
Time for a Continuity YouTube me thinks
Ads it is so…
Adblock plus on Laptop & AdAway on rooted phone. I dont see any Ads.
I take it they’re adopting the Netflix/Spotify model. But (for me anyway), paying to skip ads is not something worth paying for. I mute the ad and do something else while I wait. When you add up all those 30 seconds for the year (excluding the ads you can’t skip, you know the ones), that’s a lot of time I spent being somewhat productive. The YouTubers get their money from showing ads cos I let it run and I didn’t spend money. Crisis averted.
Would it be considered a crime to shoot pewdiepie?
Only if you blog it.
$10 a month. how about no….
$10 a month is nuts when they give content creators .000000001 of a cent of that . At least netflix is financing new content and shows.
I said this was going to happen due to ad blocker and i got argued with and red thumbed and told this wasn’t going happen. Now we all know google is looking for extra money but they have the excuse they need.
Google services will start blocking IP’s and system with adblocker installed and when google do it everyone will follow. Law decided that ad blocker can block content so inturn so can google .
have your say