Government’s anti-Catholic agenda

TÁNAISTE Eamon Gilmore and his Cabinet colleagues have little to be proud of in announcing the closure of the Irish Embassy to the Holy See — depriving our majority Catholic population of a very revered lay tie with the Pontiff.

While admitting the Vatican embassy was one of Ireland’s oldest missions, Mr Gilmore’s excuse for its closure was: “it yielded no economic return and the Government was obliged to implement cuts to oblige EU/IMF rescue targets”.

This is incorrect. The Tánaiste puts the savings to the State for the closure of the Vatican mission at approximately €700,000 annually —- a sum that would scarcely cover the expense accounts of a handful of politicians.