THE Irish government announced on Wednesday that it is to reopen the country's embassy to the Holy See, more than two years after it closed as a "cost-cutting measure" - which coincided with a rancorous exchange between the two states over allegations that the Vatican failed to co-operate with the government on the child-sex-abuse scandal (News, 11 November 2011).

Since the embassy's closure inlate 2011, the Secretary-General of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, David Cooney, has acted as "caretaker", operating from Dublin. The country's Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister), Eamon Gilmore, has denied that the move is a U-turn. He suggested that the election of Pope Francis and a new emphasison tackling hunger and world poverty lay behind the reopening. The embassy will be staffed by one diplomat.

The RC Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, welcomed the announcement, as did the Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, the Most Revd Charles Brown.