The Taoiseach's special adviser, Dr Martin Mansergh, has sharply rejected criticism of the Department of Foreign Affairs by the Fine Gael backbencher, Mr Austin Deasy, who said many Irish diplomats "feel they have to mimic the British foreign service with their pinstriped suits and Oxford accents".
Mr Deasy, a former minister for agriculture, said in an interview with the Irish Examiner that members of the foreign service had a "stuffed-shirt" mentality and that business people and professionals would make better ambassadors. He also mounted an unsuccessful challenge to Mr John Bruton's leadership of Fine Gael this week.
Dr Mansergh responded to Mr Deasy's comments in Dublin while presenting a book of essays on the Northern Ireland conflict, entitled A Farewell to Arms? and edited by Michael Cox, Adrian Guelke and Fiona Stephen.
"Without wishing to comment on the internal affairs of other parties, I found extraordinary the timing of an attack on the professionalism of the Irish diplomatic service, scarcely a month after the stunningly successful campaign for a Security Council seat at the UN, after the immensely difficult but hugely important advances in the peace process, and at a time when we have a record trade surplus and are very successfully opening up new markets with the help of new missions in South East Asia and elsewhere," Dr Mansergh said.
He added that, as someone who had spent six years studying at Oxford, "I am not conscious of anyone in the current Irish diplomatic service, which has its own distinctive style and traditions, who has an Oxford accent."
He believed the only "suspect" was himself, but it was 30 years since he had left Oxford and 20 since he had served in the Department of Foreign Affairs. Dr Mansergh quipped that "despite such obvious handicaps of speech and education" he had sought to be of some service to the country.
He considered Mr Deasy's suggestion for a system of political appointments to ambassadorial posts, rather than choosing career diplomats, "very debatable".