The President doesn’t select Irish diplomats

I write to clarify a matter. In his letter of November 18 (Irish Examiner), Myles Duffy mistakenly states that Aras an Uachtaráin sanctions or accredits diplomats to Ireland below the rank of ambassador, and that the President has a role in determining the size of Ireland’s diplomatic presence in our embassies overseas. 

This is not so.

The Presidents’s role, in this regard, is confined to the acceptance of the credentials of newly appointed ambassadors to Ireland, and to the appointment of Ireland’s ambassadors, which is done on the advice of Government.