NOW that our EU Presidency is drawing to a close the great reshuffle of our diplomats is being planned. Many of the Iveagh House mandarins, who tend to be moved every three or four years, were left in site either at home or abroad longer than normal to ensure continuity in the run up to the vital and difficult Presidency and permanence during it. So this summer (transfers tend to coincide with the school holidays) the moves will be afoot.
The log jam in DFA will be helped by the retirement of two ambassadors, Andrew O'Rourke from the Copenhagen embassy and Liam Rigney from Athens. Other ambassadors will be shifted around.
Dermot Gallagher has been six years in Washington and cannot expect to remain. Informed speculation has it that he will be replaced in a straight swap, by the man who has been running Anglo Irish business, Sean O'hUiginn. O'hUiginn has second secretary status, i.e. level with department secretary Paddy McKernan, and since the other top ambassadorial posts London Paris and the UN in New York were filled just before the Presidency and will not be vacant for some time, Gallagher would be returning to a posting at the highest level.
Pundits inside the department and there are many are sure of one thing that John Burke, currently chief of protocol, will get one of the ambassadorships. There are reports that Richard Ryan, ambassador in Madrid and before that in Seoul, may replace him. It is expected that Barry Robinson will become consul general in New York, replacing Donal Hamill. Many moves further down the scale will be activated in the New Year.