Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan has paid tribute to Ireland's diplomatic corps "who have played a huge role in the restoration of our international reputation and in our economic recovery".

He said the embassy in China had played a “huge role” in the agreement, formally announced at the weekend by the Taoiseach, to lift the ban on Irish beef, in place since the BSE scandal of the late 1990s.

“In America with the beef, embassy played a huge role,” the Minister said of the deal two weeks ago when Ireland became the first EU country to have its beef sold in the US since the scandal’s onset.

“Our exports have been thriving,” with the help of the embassies, he added.

He complimented ambassadors and their staff for the work they had done in the global “greening” of famous sites for St Patrick’s day, that has become an annual fixture.

“It’s going to be a huge source of pride on St Patrick’s day to see Edinburgh castle, to see Nelson’s column in London greened in honour of St Patrick’s Day,” the Minister said.

The “greening” will continue, “right across the globe to the Sydney Opera House”, all part of the work Ireland’s 80 missions abroad had done to assist the State’s economic recovery.

The Minister, who will announce a global programme of 1916 centenary commemorative events, at the end of February, called on Fine Gael members at the party's national conference to reflect on that "great work" by Ireland's embassy network and the staff in the Department of Foreign Affairs.

People for the most part use embassies if they lose their passport or if there is

an accident abroad, he said.

There was "such a brouhaha about the temporary closure of an embassy", Mr Flanagan said in reference to the closure of the embassy to the Vatican City, a separate mission from the embassy to Rome.

"We need to reflect on our new embassies with the same amount of money we've had in recent times – new embassies in Nairobi, in Jakarta, Hong Kong, Bangkok, in Austin, Texas all feeding into Ireland and Ireland abroad."

He told delegates during a well attended debate on the centenary commemoration of 1916: “I’d like the Fine Gael ardfheis to acknowledge the great role of our ambassadors, of embassy networks throughout the world and the work that they do for us, day in, day out.”

That embassy network would next year present, “to a global audience, a snapshot of Ireland’s achievements”.

This “global messaging and outreach will be the work of our embassies abroad over the coming 18 months”, and detailed planning was taking place for a range of commemorative, public diplomacy, cultural and community events.

Ireland had “many positive stories to tell abroad in terms of the past one hundred years, of our creativity, our peace process, our contribution to peace-keeping and to the fight against hunger, the achievements of our people at home and abroad”.

There was also a “good story to tell” about the hard-won economic recovery that had taken hold, Mr Flanagan told delegates.

“We take pride in the achievement of many talented Irish people who have left our shores.

“We nevertheless want them to come back home and Ireland 2016 is an opportunity to reach out and reconnect with many of these.”

Events include a three-week ‘Proclaiming Ireland Festival’ in the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC in May 2016.

Starting with 1916, “it will also celebrate our history over the last one hundred years and present the Ireland of today to a wide audience”.

There will also be a live simultaneous screening around the world of a University of Notre Dame documentary on the Rising around the St Patrick’s Festival next year, at gatherings of the Irish diaspora.

In Britain, the Irish embassy has planned a weekend of events “focused on culture, diaspora and remembrance”.