Ireland is a coarse place with a sad history where the natives are obsessed by money. That, at least, is the view of the German Ambassador to Dublin.

Christian Pauls earned a rare official rebuke from the Irish Government after he aired his unflattering opinions before a group of 80 German industrialists, many of whom were potential investors in the Celtic Tiger economy.

Mr Pauls poured scorn on Ireland’s recent affluence and its Government, telling his audience at Clontarf Castle in Dublin that “junior ministers earn more than the German Chancellor” and that “20 per cent of the population are public servants” – neither of which is true.

He described the country’s health service as chaotic with hospital waiting lists which would not be tolerated elsewhere.

And he revealed his amazement that Irish doctors who were offered annual salaries of €200,000 (£138,000) to work in the public sector turned their noses up at what they called “Mickey Mouse money”.

His comments, made in German and translated into English for the small gathering of Irish present, produced guffaws from the Ambassador’s countrymen but infuriated Gay Mitchell, a European Parliament member for Dublin.

He was so alarmed by Mr Pauls’ remarks that at one point he interjected: “Mr Ambassador, I am the next speaker!” as a warning to him to moderate his comments.

But Mr Pauls ploughed on regardless, describing Irish history as “even sadder than Poland” and relating an amusing anecdote – one that he clearly regarded as a telling observation on contemporary Ireland.

He said that he was at the National Concert Hall when an announcer appealed for the owner of a 1993-registered car to move the vehicle because it was blocking an entrance.

“Of course no one moved,” said Mr Pauls. “All the Irish are driving 2006 and 2007 cars. For all I know the car is still there.” He also said that tourists from the United States had stopped visiting Ireland because they were sick of the incessant traffic jams.

Dermot Gallagher, the Secretary-General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland’s Foreign Ministry, was ordered by Dermot Ahern, the Foreign Minister to issue a formal protest.

Government sources said that Mr Gallagher had a frosty conversation with Mr Pauls late last week in which it was made clear that his comments were “inaccurate, misinformed and inappropriate at a public forum”.

The event was to host members of the German Federation of Buying and Marketing Groups, representing more than 300 groups looking for business opportunities in Ireland.

Mr Mitchell said that the Ambassador’s performance had been appalling. “In my view he did a number on Ireland and the Irish.”

Responding to Mr Pauls’ comments at the event he told him tartly that his view of Ireland might have been different if he had been in the country during the years when it was having to manage poverty rather than its current wealth and success.

Reinod Herber, a spokesman for the German Embassy, said: “Maybe he misjudged the humour. I don’t think he tried to insult the Irish people. My Ambassador is a humorous man and maybe that humour was misunderstood.”

The diplomatic spat comes as Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach, faces more questions over his own finances during the 1990s when he served as Finance Minister.

Mr Ahern is to give evidence again this week in a long-running corruption tribunal amid signs that public opinion is turning against him over his explanations over how and why he received about £200,000 from wealthy friends in loans and gifts.

On Friday Mr Ahern described a whip-round of £8,000 at a dinner in Manchester as “not a big deal” and said he would have preferred a season ticket to Old Trafford.

As he left the tribunal at Dublin Castle on Friday afternoon he was booed by members of the public, a grim reminder for Mr Ahern of the fate of his predecessor, Charles Haughey, whose reputation was destroyed by the work of another tribunal when it uncovered the extent to which he had used his public office to enrich himself. Weekend media comment dubbed Mr Ahern as “Haughey-Lite”, with one newspaper editorial describing the “grotesquely complicated, unbelievably secretive, bizarrely contradictory and unprecedentedly cash-centred nature of Bertie Ahern’s financial affairs”.

Diplomatic gaffes

— Brazil’s Chief Justice, Celso de Mello, turned down an invitation to dine with President Clinton after a US Embassy document dismissed the Brazilian judicial system as “inefficient” and referred to “endemic corruption” in its culture. US attempts to smooth over the “misunderstanding” were ruined a week later when a White House memo described Brasilia as “a dry and sterile city, just as soulless as its administration”.

— Dan Quayle, the former US Vice-President, was heard to say on a trip to Latin America: “I wish I had taken Latin at school.”

— There was embarrassment and defiance in 2004 after a Sydney airport security officer frisked Helen Clark, the New Zealand Prime Minister, even after being told who she was. The Australian Tourism Minister said it was an embarrassing error; the Transport Minister said: “It doesn't matter who you are . . . If your number comes up, you are screened."

Sources: diplomacy.edu, Times archives

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