Pope welcome to visit Ireland, says Gilmore

THE Government will “respond positively” if Pope Benedict expresses an interest in visiting Ireland, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said.

Last month, Mr Gilmore, as Foreign Affairs Minister, announced that the Government was closing Ireland’s embassy to the Vatican.

But he insisted that the decision was being taken on cost grounds rather than because of the fallout from the Cloyne Report into clerical child sexual abuse.