Costs associated with reopening Ireland’s Embassy in Iran have topped €1.6 million even before it has its final premises, according to the latest figures.
The Government has defended plans to reopen the embassy amid concerns over Iran’s human rights record, its support for armed groups in the region, and tensions between Iran and Israel that saw direct missile strikes in opposing territory earlier this year.
Ireland’s Ambassador-designate to Iran, Laoise Moore, arrived in Tehran in September and presented copies of her credentials to the Iranian foreign minister on October 28th.
This allows Ms Moore to fulfil her role before presenting credentials to the head of state, and she is awaiting a date for that ceremony.
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The Irish Embassy has been operating in a space provided by the embassy of Germany, with the Department of Foreign Affairs saying a location for the Irish chancery is still being sought.
A spokeswoman said Ireland was contributing to the costs of being accommodated at the German embassy, but added that “it is not appropriate to disclose the details” of this.
Figures released by the department show that €1,628,567 has been spent on reopening the Irish Embassy in Tehran between 2021 and November 2024. The bulk of this, almost €1.5 million, included “payroll and related costs” and “mission operational costs”.
A total of €57,182 was spent on the purchase of two vehicles, which the department said were “essential for security and safety reasons”.
Some €43,837 was spent on “training and development”, and €37,184 on “travel and related costs”.
The previous Irish embassy in Tehran closed in 2012 for financial reasons in the wake of the economic crash.
The presence of an Irish Embassy in Tehran provides a channel for the Government to raise our concerns about Iran’s policies in a number of areas directly with the Iranian authorities
Simon Coveney, who was then minister for Foreign Affairs, announced the re-establishment of an Irish diplomatic presence in Iran in 2021 and a charge d’affaires was posted there.
In November 2022 a number of Fine Gael parliamentarians wrote to Mr Coveney asking him to stall or cancel the reopening of the embassy. That was following the death in Tehran of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She died after being arrested by morality police for not wearing her hijab correctly. Mr Coveney said at that time the reopening was “under review”.
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said: “The presence of an Irish Embassy in Tehran provides a channel for the Government to raise our concerns about Iran’s policies in a number of areas directly with the Iranian authorities”, and to be informed of developments within Iran.
She added that Ireland also raised its concerns with the Iranian embassy in Dublin, as a member of the EU and in multilateral forums, and that “the Government has repeatedly condemned Iran’s support of Hamas, Hizbullah, the Houthis and other armed non-State actors in the region and called on Iran to restrain its proxies and itself. The Government has clearly and consistently condemned Iran’s attacks on Israel.
“Ireland’s engagement with Iran on these issues is more credible because of our presence in the country,” she added
The spokeswoman said 21 other EU countries as well as the UK, Australia and New Zealand had embassies in Iran. “The embassy will be the principal channel of communication between Iran and the EU, during the Irish EU presidency in 2026,” she said.
Taoiseach Simon Harris previously said that having diplomatic relations was “not the same as agreeing with a country”.
He highlighted how Ireland had diplomatic relations with Russia, while “we utterly deplore the actions of Russia”, and with Israel, which in his view was “continuing to engage on a war on children in Gaza”.
“So we can have diplomatic relations with a country and continue to call out that,” he said.
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