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OPENING TEN NEW Irish embassies in 2019, with a further three openings scheduled in 2020, is linked to Ireland’s Brexit strategy, according to Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney.
In announcing the government’s plans for this year, the Tánaiste also defended the costly practice of leasing, rather than buying property abroad.
By the end of 2019 Ireland will have opened the following new missions:
The government is planning a further three openings in 2020:
Coveney said “there is an element of a Brexit strategy” in opening these new embassies in terms of some sectors having an over-reliance on trade with the UK, stating that there are new markets Irish businesses can tap into.
He added that even if Brexit was not happening, Ireland would be pressing ahead with increasing its diplomatic footstep.
Describing it as “pretty dramatic in terms of the pace of expansion”, Coveney said there will be a huge return for the opening of the new embassies.
Cost of renting over buying property abroad
The Tánaiste also defended the spend on embassies abroad.
The Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee recently said it is concerned there is a move towards long-term rental, rather than the State buying properties and questioned whether renting premises for Irish embassies abroad is value for money.
The top five Irish embassy rental costs last year were Brussels, New York, Beijing and London.
The cost of renting the premises in Brussels last year cost €1.065 million, while Ireland’s permanent representation to the UN in New York cost €885,014. The Consulate General in New York cost €814,406 to rent.
Beijing embassy rent cost €501,825 and the London embassy and official accommodation cost €406,490.
Coveney said the State buys and leases properties abroad.
“We do both,” he said, adding that properties divisions have a job to do in order “to get the best value for money” in the right locations.
“There is no point in buying property and then finding ourselves stuck in properties that are devalued and in the wrong place in five years time,” he said, adding that the government buys where it can be assured there is value for money, and “when we can’t do that, we lease, it is case by case”.
There will be no cap on the spending for new embassies, said Coveney, who added that all costs will be transparent and every penny will be accounted for.
Among the embassies opening over the next two years, Coveney said the ‘Ireland House’ in Tokyo is one of the government’s biggest undertakings, describing it as a “huge piece of infrastructure”.
He said he was glad an embassy was opened in New Zealand, saying it should have been opened many years ago.
A site visit to Los Angeles is to take place soon, according to Coveney who said the Irish government won’t “rush into buying next door to Robbie Keane”.
He said the embassy will help promote Irish film, stating that two focuses for that embassy is on tech and also the creative industries.
“Ireland has built a reputation for itself which allows us to expand into new markets in a very exciting way. This is about capitalising on the opportunities that are emerging,” he said.
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I think its called airbrushing history.
Goebbels would be proud.
The quote from Othello that he used in his resignation speech should have just been “I have done the State.”
Odious, oily, corrupt. The epitome of Fianna Fail.
He was the godfather of corruption in Ireland, he tutored Bertie so well that Bertie outshone him then went on to become the Al Capone of Ireland, why do we need reminders of his treachery.
No matter what the family put up to redeem this thief he’ll remain a hate figure for many people. The personification of cute hoorism in politics on this country. Lived like a king while the people struggled. I for one never ever want him referred to as being my Taoiseach. He was a crook…end of.
What a load of cock… No mention of terry Keane either.. Talk about one sided…. Most corrupt politician in history .
No that would Bertie
Thats saying a lot considering Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowan came after him
Bertie was his apprentice, Haughy taught him well, put corruption on a totally new level.
Martin now not much of a change they were all around the table
I agree with you Joe , Bertie was the the biggest bollox of them all our country would be a much better place only for him I suppose you could but Biffo in there to and now we could put the other two in Kenny and Gilmore ( oh god help us when you see what we have to run our lovely little country)
What a piece of sh*t. Represented all that was wrong with Ireland
Such a toxic family.
You know them all personally do you?
Hmmm, Charlie is fair game, but his family (well most of them) weren’t public representatives – cheap shot.
The Heehaugh family would do well to look at the comments and thumbs on this thread before wasting their time trying to rewrite history and treating us as fools.
The disgrace that was Charles Haughey, set the tone for the arrogant disregard by Fianna Fail for laws, the people and for basic decency This disregard for the people and Fianna Fail corrupt practices led to €200,000,000,000 debt forcing Irish families into debt forever. Haughey’s wealth was accumulated by the proceeds of criminality. In any decent society, the Criminal Assets Bureau would have taken all his assets for the state. Haughey’s elitist family, like all the Fianna Fail “family” have some neck attempting to rewrite the history of Haughey and Fianna Fail.
Give back the money your DADDY stole from the irish nation HAUGHEYS
Financial scandals[edit]
Haughey’s personal wealth and extravagant lifestyle – he owned racehorses,[36] a large motor sailing yacht Celtic Mist, a private island, and a Gandon-designed mansion – had long been a point of curious speculation; he had refused throughout his career to answer any questions about how he financed this lifestyle on a government salary.[37] Despite his professed desire to fade from public attention, these questions followed him into retirement, eventually exploding into a series of political, financial and personal scandals tarnished his image and reputation.
In 1997, a government-appointed tribunal led by Judge Brian McCracken first revealed that Haughey had received substantial monetary gifts from businessmen, and that he had held secret offshore bank accounts in the Ansbacher Bank in the Cayman Islands. Haughey faced criminal charges for obstructing the work of the McCracken tribunal.[38][39] His trial on these charges was postponed indefinitely after the judge in the case found that he would not be able to get a fair trial following prejudicial comments by the then PD leader and Tánaiste Mary Harney.[40]
In 1997 the public were shocked by allegations that Haughey had embezzled money that was a subvention to the Fianna Fáil Party; money that was from central Government’s taxpayer’s funds for the operation of a political party and that he had spent large sums of these funds on Charvet shirts and expensive dinners in a top Dublin restaurant while preaching belt-tightening and implementing budget cuts as a national policy.[41]
The subsequent Moriarty Tribunal delved further into Haughey’s financial dealings. In his main report[6] on Charles Haughey released on 19 December 2006, Mr. Justice Moriarty made the following findings:
Haughey was paid more than IR£8 million between 1979 and 1986 from various benefactors and businessmen, including £1.3 million from the Dunnes Stores supermarket tycoon Ben Dunne alone.[37] The tribunal described these payments as “unethical”.[42]
In May 1989 one of Haughey’s lifelong friends Brian Lenihan, a former government minister, underwent a liver transplant which was partly paid for through fundraising by Haughey. The Moriarty tribunal found that, of the £270,000 collected in donations for Brian Lenihan, no more than £70,000 ended up being spent on Lenihan’s medical care. The tribunal identified one specific donation of £20,000 for Lenihan that was surreptitiously appropriated by Haughey,[43] who took steps to conceal this transaction.[44][45]
The tribunal found evidence of favours performed in return for money – Saudi businessman Mahmoud Fustok paid Haughey £50,000 to support applications for Irish citizenship.[42]
In other evidence of favours performed, the tribunal reported that Haughey arranged meetings between Ben Dunne and civil servant Seamus Pairceir of the Revenue Commissioners. These discussions resulted in an outstanding capital gains tax bill for Dunne being reduced by £22.8 million. Moriarty found that this was “not coincidental”, and that it was a substantial benefit conferred on Dunne by Haughey’s actions.[46]
Allied Irish Banks settled a million-pound overdraft with Haughey soon after he became Taoiseach in 1979; the tribunal found that the lenience shown by the bank in this case amounted to an indirect payment by the bank to Haughey.[42]
The tribunal rejected Haughey’s claims of ignorance of his own financial affairs[41] and Haughey was accused by the tribunal of “devaluing democracy”.[42]
Haughey eventually agreed a settlement with the revenue and paid a total of €6.5 million in back taxes and penalties to the Revenue Commissioners in relation to these donations.[47] In August 2003 Haughey was forced to sell his large estate, Abbeville, in Kinsealy in north County Dublin for €45 million to settle legal fees he had incurred during the tribunals.[48] He continued to live at Abbeville and own the island of Inishvickillane off the coast of County Kerry until his death.
Truly the Godfather of corruption and greed that has infiltrated politics ever since !
CAB should be seizing his families assets.
I really enjoyed reading that and it spells out exactly how rotten and corrupt he was!
Are you jealous?
What became of the silk shirts
probably in Berties wardrobe……
CAB should have gone after the Haughey’s assets
They still should. All the little Junior Haugheys living the high life on the back of Il Duce’s ill gotten gains.!
And they’re using that wealth to go on the marketing offensive here.
Do you press a brown envelope button to enter?
Airbrush Charlie all you like but GUBU sums the odious man up quite well
Master thief and conman there is a saying in the art world a master piece can never be improved
Factual, that should be interesting.
would’nt read this book if they put it threw me letter box for freeee
And anybody says he done good for this country is a blind old fool he just layed the foundations for bigger shite bags
It will be interesting to see if RTE attempt airbrushing him too !!!
RTE IS A PUPPET TO THOSE PEOPLE
The turnout for his funeral summed up perfectly what we all thought of him. Despicable man .
Haughey the only politician capable of making Berlusconi look like an honest man.
Haughey corrupted the entire political system but rather ironic the mention of phone tapping of two journalists in the wake of revelations that the USA has been tapping every single world leaders phone calls
The ‘Hawhee’ family don’t have to worry about how RTE will portray their father. The people know the truth. Their attempt to airbrush the past is sickening.
There’s no doubt that Haughey done some good things, there’s no getting away from that. Copy that with his counterpart across the Dail, Garret FitzGerald. You might not have agreed with his politic, he also done good but he wasn’t corrupt.
At the end of it all Haughey was found to be corrupt and abused a position of power. The Haughey family should be glad that they were able to hang on to his millions, if it were up to me, CAB would seized them. Of course, Bertie was never going to betray his master….
And when the father of FG investment when down, he negotiated a write off from AIB . What was the payload for that I wonder. Not corruption on same scale I would agree.
Hardly a crime to negotiate a write down on a loan which was secured by worthless GPA shares. It’s not as if he walked away from it either.
http://www.moriarty-tribunal.ie/images/transcript_145.pdf
Does it mention that he was a corrupt bully?
What about all the Brown Envelopes he got as back handers???
“Winnings on the horses” is the favoured response of Fianna Fail leaders.
Typical! If this initiative wasn’t so pathetic it would be funny ! Editing history not a credible thing to do. They’re a at it today, Lenihan in Irish daily mail. More of the same
There’s bound to be an email address on the website for…ahem…suggestions.
You can say what you like but I’d take Charlie as Taoiseach today over the current lot. He was a statesman and a real leader not like the buffoon we have at the wheel today!
You should be Lionel Nutz coming out with a comment like that..as bad as the current lot are they can’t hold a stick to FF when it comes to corrupt politicians.
Lionel, he was a great achiever and made the Celtic Tiger possible. He lived way beyond his salary, made corruption acceptable within FF and this was the foundation stone to our present situation. His personal life is still legend to this day and his thoughts were not of his family either .
Power corrupts !
You make a good point, Mr Hutz.
I would like to see how this site compares to Wikipedia? This is a cynical attempt to rewrite history just like this show on RTE.
bad made worse
This is a good idea on the part of the Haughey family. It may allow younger people, in particular, to gain a balanced knowledge of Charles Haughey’s career and contribution to Ireland, as opposed to the totally jaundiced, infantile and one-sided caricature of him that is presented by the liberal establishment media (whose idol was always the hopeless Garret Fitzgerald).
The shinner always comes out in Hugh!
And the brown envelopes always come out in Fianna Fail.
Nothing to do with SF. Why can’t you understand that people commenting here can’t stand haughey or FF. It really is that simple oliver
How WOULD a FF party hack understand?
All these comments from people that never done anything wrong my what good people ye are, ye must be proud of yourselves never committed a sin, the people of Kerry loved Charlie and he always looked after the old people of this country not like the current shower of misfits
What about the bribes the money he demanded and received from “the big fellow” Ben Dunne?
I’m sure the wardrobe shinners In RTE will show Charlie in a good light, some hope What about yourself Hugh.
Arms trial is mentioned in northern ireland section. Headline on this piece is inaccurate. I wonder why?
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