The costly business of budget diplomacy
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.For sale: 11-bedroom mansion on the second poshest street in Dublin. Master bedroom once slept in by de Gaulle. Stunning two-acre garden. Dining room comfortably sits 45. Would suit newly rich billionaire or cunning property developer. Asking price: €60m, (£45m) which would be the highest price ever paid for a house in Ireland.
As part of a drive to restrain the cost of its diplomatic service – the second largest after America's – France is selling its vast ambassador's residence in Dublin. It is also flogging, for an affordable €20m, its embassy, which is just on the other side of leafy Ailesbury Road in the most expensive residential area of the Irish capital.
Whether this is a sensible time to sell is open to question. Dublin property prices, climbing vertically for more than a decade, have plunged recently. As The Irish Times put it: "You have to admire the style of the French. The property boom is well and truly over and, voilà, they put their embassy residence on the market ."
Let's hope that the Quai d'Orsay, home of French diplomacy, does not make the same error as the Foreign Office, which sold off the British embassy in Dublin a few years ago. HMG failed to find a new building secure enough for its liking and found itself renting its old building back from its new owner (minus the garden, which had been sold for development).
The French ambassador's residence, bought by Paris in 1930, belongs to a different diplomatic age. The building is 10,000 sq ft, 10 times larger than the average semi. The ambassador since September, Yvon Roe D'Albert, admits there are rooms he has yet to discover. "It's so big, I have to call my wife on her mobile phone if I want to talk to her," he said. Cutting embassy costs has become an obsession for both the French and British governments. Partly, this has been forced by the need to divert money to missions in new nations.
France spends €4.5bn a year on its foreign service. It owns or rents 323 diplomatic buildings around the world. Since there are only 193 countries other than France, this may seem excessive. You must of course allow for consulates, trade missions, military offices, cultural centres and ambassador's residences.
In London, France has an embassy occupying two adjoining buildings in Knightsbridge. It has a stately ambassador's residence overlooking Hyde Park. It also has a consulate general, a cultural service, a cultural centre, a cultural institute, a scientific service, a treasury and a maritime attache's office – occupying six sites in the West End, all owned by the French state.
According to the French budget for 2008, "it is foreseen that all these services will be grouped together on one site".
Good idea. Except, of course, that London property prices are not what they were either. Saving money at the wrong time can be a costly business.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments