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LAST UPDATE | 30 Nov 2021
THE GOVERNMENT HAS today approved recommendations on how to establish and appoint special envoys following the Katherine Zappone saga.
In July of this year, it emerged that former Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone was to be appointed to a new role of Ireland’s Special Envoy to the UN for freedom of opinion and expression.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney brought a memo to a Cabinet meeting following discussions between himself, Zappone, and his department officials.
The role had not been publicly advertised, leading to concerns about transparency around the appointment process.
The appointment, which has since been cancelled, was labelled as cronyism by opposition parties. Coveney himself survived a vote of no confidence in his role as minister.
A government spokesperson has said that at this point in time there was no proposal to fill the role for which Zappone was originally nominated.
A proposal to fill the role would have to come from the Department of Foreign Affairs and be made through the new process but no such proposal has been made.
The review into the saga has today made a number of specific recommendations on how future Special Envoy appointments will take place.
These recommendations include;
The full report can be found here.
Irish special envoys have been appointed going back a number of decades, although the overall number of special envoys appointed is relatively small,” the report noted.
“Outside the UN Security Council campaigns of 2000 and 2020, the group has identified eight special envoy roles in this 21-year time frame.”
It said that around €350,000 had been spent on special envoys during the last 21 years, a sum the reviewers described as “modest”.
“The average outlay per special envoy mission (US Congress, UN Security Council Campaign, Francophone Africa and the Sahel, and Food Systems) at circa €87,500 over four years also appears modest,” the report added.
With reporting by Press Association
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Some photos: The face of jilted entitlement.
@Vonvonic:
Mrs Doubtfire is in the running for the next Gig.
What about scrapping “Super Junior Ministers”?
Value for money though. Her non appearance exposed coveney, veradkar and o’donohue for the creeps they are
Anything done about Eamon Ryan appointing Cara Augustenborg and Morgan Bazilian? These appointments were made without any formal public appointment process. Anyone with a self respect would step down from these roles if they were not correctly appointed.
@Richard Right: stepping down from the free juicy one 4 all expenses and pension?
@John Johnes: John I’d be hoping for some integrity, but Augustenborg does not have any of that. She’s all about the freebies.
@Richard Right: ofc , freebies for the tax payers money.
There is a whole queue outside for the gravy train.
@John Johnes: And specially created for her. Now she declined there is no need for anyone.
@John Johnes:
One is from 4, well mostly.
Any chance we can get some rules about not creating makey uppy jobs for our buddys?
@Davey Ohanlon: great idea but will need a commissioner or ombudsman type role to oversee all of that, they’ll need help as well to do their job too. If only you’d a few friends in high places to help you get it, I’d give you the job, qualified as any by the sounds of it, if I wasn’t such a lowly pleb if course like.
So there is “no sign of filling the Katherine Zappone gig.”
Of course not! It never really existed in isolation in the first place, did it? To most observers it was a pure crony made up job surely?
“but there’s no sign of filling the Katherine Zappone gig”
Thats because it was all in her head!
Look no further!
I’ll do it for expenses and a few Euros walking around money
Makey uppey rules which will be simply flouted….
Can’t understand why she wasn’t given it like!
have your say