VATICAN CITY –Emma Madigan has taken up the post of Irish ambassador to the Holy See, after the permanent position was cut for budget reasons in 2011.

 The new envoy was received by Pope Francis on Tuesday and took the opportunity to invite the pontiff to Ireland.

 The decision to close the embassy in 2011 was supposedly made in a bid to save 1.25 million euros per year. At the same time, diplomatic missions to Iran and Timor Leste were also halted as part of a wider project to trim overseas spending in relations which gained no economic return for the Irish people.

 The closure however came at a time of strained relations between the two states following the publication of the Cloyne Report, which catalogued the widespread failings of senior figures in the Irish Catholic church to investigate instances of child abuse by clergy members. The Report also found that the treatment the Vatican gave to alleged offenders was “wholly unacceptable.”

 In July 2011 Taoiseach Enda Kelly told journalists that the report had “exposed the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism and narcissism” in the Vatican.

  The subsequent decision to withdraw a resident ambassador from one of Ireland’s longest running diplomatic missions was interpreted by many as a snub against the Vatican.

 The new envoy Emma Madigan has 14 years experience in the Foreign Office and the newly streamlined one-person diplomatic mission will reportedly focus on development aid.