Diplomatic Representation
Dail Éireann — 2026-10-01
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Barry Ward (FG), Dún Laoghaire

I entirely agree with what the Minister of State has said about the importance and I also recognise the number of new embassies that have been opened. I was in Moldova last September during the parliamentary elections and I met the ambassador who was setting up the embassy there. Just this week, I attended an EU enlargement conference in Tirana in Albania and I met our Greek ambassador, Ciara O'Floinn, who was not just there and present for the conference in Tirana but was clearly very well connected with Albanian parliamentarians and is clearly very present on the ground in Tirana as well.
I recognise the hard work that has been done by our diplomats who cover, on a non-resident basis, countries such as North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania. Should we now be taking the next step of opening embassies in these countries? Certainly in relation to Montenegro the received wisdom is that it is very far along the track. The Minister of State mentioned that it is one of four countries which are progressing their accession status. In fairness to Montenegro, it has done a huge amount of work. I met the delegation in Tirana this week and I have also met them here. Surely if we are to maintain the principle of having a presence in every EU country, we should also have a presence in those countries close that are to accession.
The Minister of State mentioned other countries such as Kosovo, Georgia and Türkiye. We have an embassy in Türkiye but Georgia and Kosovo are covered by the embassies in Türkiye and Hungary, respectively. They are a little bit further away, realistically. Montenegro seems likely to become a member of the European Union in the coming years and we do not have an embassy on the ground. I am not saying we do not cover it because I know the embassy in Belgrade does a super job there and I pay tribute to it for the work it does. The principle of having a presence in countries is very important. Enlargement is close to our hearts. We were part of the first wave of accession to the European Union and we have been a very important part of many of the accessions since then. Part of this involves establishing a diplomatic presence in these countries.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-10-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:01:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-10-01