Our Compliance Policy

The Department of Foreign Affairs aims to provide high quality services to the public and comply with the below policies.

We are committed to protecting the personal data you give us in compliance with our obligations under the Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Please read our Data Privacy Notice and contact details of our Data Protection Officer.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is committed to providing a positive work environment with a strong focus on dignity, respect and diversity. We have a globally distributed workforce and we prioritise our greatest assets, our people, to perform to the highest levels.

The Department's Gender, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Action Plan 2022-25, and HR Strategy 2023-27 commit us to 'Improved gender balance across all levels of the Department' and a 'Reduction of Gender Pay Gap to below 10% by 2025'. The Department has been active in seeking to reduce the Gender Pay Gap over a number of years, which we are pleased to have reduced to 11.67% in June 2024.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is committed to fostering a culture of respect and equality to the benefit of our staff, the Department itself, and those we serve at home and abroad.

With the ultimate goal of delivering better services for government and citizens, the Department launched a new GEDI Action Plan in July 2022, focused on a set of ambitious targets. By 2025 we will:

• reduce the Gender Pay Gap to below 10%
• have a fully gender-balanced Management Board
• at least 45% women serving as Heads of Mission
• carry out accessibility audits for all DFA HQ buildings
• all staff will have completed diversity and inclusion training

At the heart of the Department's work on Gender, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (GEDI) is a commitment to openness and dialogue. In this regard, the Management Board Sub-Committee on GEDI and in particular the work of its constituent volunteer-led Staff Working Groups plays a key role.

Read the Department's 2022 DFA GEDI Policy and Gender, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan 2022-2025 below.

We are committed to the provision of services to citizens in Irish. We work to ensure full compliance with the legislation of the Official Languages Act 2003. Through our Irish language scheme and customer charter, we seek to ensure the highest standard of service in Irish for citizens who wish to do business with us in Irish.

We are also active in promoting the Irish language within EU institutions too. Through Ireland’s diplomatic network, we facilitate and work with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media in the promotion of the language more widely overseas through a programme of cultural and academic activities.

We comply with our obligations under Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation, under which you can access records held by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The Freedom of Information Act 2014 allows you to access, to the greatest extent possible, information held by the department. It gives you the right to have your personal data corrected or updated and to get reasons for decisions taken by the department that affect you. Read about how you can make an FOI request.

We are committed to helping people with disabilities to access our services.

Access officer

We have appointed an Access Officer in accordance with section 26 of the Disability Act 2005. The Access Officer is responsible for ensuring that help and advice are given to people with disabilities who wish to access our services.

Email the Access Officer ensuring you state that it is for the attention of the Access Officer.

Alternatively, you can contact the Access Officer as follows:

Inquiry officer

Our Inquiry Officer will investigate any complaints made under section 38 of the Disability Act.

Our Inquiry Officer is Ken Mooney, and you can contact him at:

Email the Inquiry Officer ensuring you state that it is for the attention of the Inquiry Officer.

The contents of these pages are provided as an information guide only. They are intended to enhance public access to information about the Department of Foreign Affairs.

While every effort is made in preparing material for publication, no responsibility is accepted by or on behalf of the State for any errors, omissions or misleading statements on these pages or any site to which these pages connect.

Although every effort is made to ensure the reliability of links to third-party sites, they are provided for convenience and for information purposes only. The provision of a link cannot be taken as an endorsement or approval of a third-party site or of the information and/or opinions that it contains. The Department of Foreign Affairs bears no responsibility for the content of a third-party site or any subsequent links that it contains and has no control over the content or availability of such a site. The third party site should be contacted for answers to any questions regarding its content.

We comply with the Regulations on the Re-use of Public Sector Information and we encourage the re-use of the information that we produce.

All of the information featured on our website is the copyright of the Department of Foreign Affairs unless otherwise indicated. You may re-use the information on this website free of charge in any format.

Re-use includes copying, issuing copies to the public, and publishing, broadcasting and translating into other languages. It also covers non-commercial research and study.

Conditions for using our information

Re-use is subject to the following conditions. You must:

• acknowledge the source and our copyright in cases where you supply the information to others
• reproduce the information accurately
• not use the information in a misleading way
• not use the information for the principal purpose of advertising or promoting a particular product or service
• not use the information for or in support of illegal, immoral, fraudulent, or dishonest purposes

The Department of Foreign Affairs is not liable for any loss or liability associated with the re-use of information and does not certify that the information is up-to-date or error free. We do not authorise any user to have exclusive rights to re-use of our information.

Information we maintain

For further information on the re-use of information maintained by the department please email us in the Freedom of Information Unit at foi@dfa.ie

We would like to thank Fáilte Ireland, Tourism Ireland and the Defence Forces for the use of some of their photographs on this site.

The Protected Disclosures (Amendment) 2022 Act effective from 1 January 2023, facilitates those, as provided for in the Act, to disclose information to a public body, on wrongdoings observed or perceived, over the course of their duty or engagement with the public body.

Those wishing to make protected disclosures to the Department of Foreign Affairs may do so in confidence either orally by secure voicemail at +353-1-408 2675 or by email to protecteddisclosures@dfa.ie or in writing to:

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has policy and procedures for the making of Protected Disclosures in the Department in place.

Under Section 22 of the Protected Disclosures Act, 2014 (as amended by the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act 2022) each public body is required to publish an annual report setting out the number of protected disclosures received in the preceding year and the action taken.

Five reports of alleged wrongdoings were received by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2024. Three reports were transmitted to the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner, one report was referred to another relevant procedure, and one report was awaiting initial assessment at the end of the year. One case was carried forward from 2023.

The Children First Act 2015 was enacted in 2015 and was fully commenced on 11 December 2017. Further information on the Act and the Children First Guidelines can be found on the website of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

Under the Act, Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, and An Garda Síochána are designated as the organisations with responsibility for child protection and welfare.

The Act places additional obligations on providers of certain services to children. While this department has limited direct interaction with children, to meet our obligations under the Act, the department has developed a Sectoral Implementation Plan and a Child Safeguarding Statement.

We aim to comply with Level Double-A of the Web Accessibility Initiative Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Accessibility policies

• gov.ie accessibility policy
• ireland.ie accessibility policy