THE RELATIONSHIP between the Government and the Catholic Church was now “more real’’ than it had been for many years, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said.

He added he had spoken to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and, briefly, Cardinal Seán Brady, as well as many members of the bishops’ congregation and of the church.

“I am glad to note that the church is working diligently and in full co-operation with the Minister for Children, who is preparing legislation in respect of the protection of children and children’s rights.’’

The Taoiseach was responding to a renewed demand by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin that the Government reverse its decision to close the Irish embassy in the Vatican.

Mr Kenny said Government decisions were reviewed on a constant basis, as they should be. The Department of Foreign Affairs’s secretary general, David Cooney, “an eminent public servant’’, had been appointed as non-resident Ambassador. Mr Cooney had been accepted by the Vatican and would be accredited in due course, he added.

Mr Martin, who said the saving was approximately €450,000, claimed the closure was the wrong decision.

“Ireland needs as extensive a diplomatic footprint as it can have across the globe. That has always been my position.’’ When one had difficulties with particular states, a presence on the ground was crucial, said Mr Martin.

“For example, having eyes and ears on the ground, in my view, is the best way to ensure the Vatican’s policies and position on child abuse and child protection are in line with Government policy,’’ he added. Diplomacy was about far more than trade and economics, and, to paraphrase the “retired and respected” diplomat Seán Donlon, one must be where policy was formulated to have an influence on it.

Mr Kenny replied that we had people “on the ground in the Vatican for very many years and look what happened and what was allowed to happen’’.

He said a collective Government decision had been made in respect of three embassies: East Timor, Tehran and the Vatican. The Vatican closure had been “hyped up” in certain quarters.

Insisting that the Taoiseach’s comments on child abuse were unworthy, Mr Martin said he was the first minister to initiate an inquiry into abuse in the Ferns diocese.

He was also the first to open up the position on industrial schools, a matter in which the government, of which Mr Kenny was a member, had done nothing.

It was not fair, he said, to blame former holders of the office of ambassador, if that was the implication, for failing to have necessary influence on the Vatican and its approach to child abuse.

Mr Martin said that as a former minister for foreign affairs he had rejected the closure, believing an alternative set of savings could be achieved by reducing staff numbers in many embassies.

Mr Kenny said there was clearly a difference between the diplomatic relations conducted between Ireland and other countries and what happened in the case of the Vatican, which was essentially a listening post.

The Taoiseach said Mr Cooney had attended the ordination of the incoming nuncio, Archbishop Charles J Brown, and he would represent the State at the consistory of cardinals next Saturday.