Ireland

Our relationship with Ireland

New Zealand has a friendly, long-standing relationship with Ireland – with deep personal and cultural links. Around one in every six New Zealanders claims Irish descent and St Patrick’s Day is widely celebrated throughout the country each year. 

We have close cooperation on foreign policy issues such as climate change, disarmament and human rights.

Ireland is a partner in the Small Advanced Economies Initiative established by New Zealand. Ireland and New Zealand also collaborate closely in the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

We also work closely in the agriculture and land use negotiation forums in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on, particularly, livestock issues, and have co-financed an OECD paper on agriculture and climate change.

New Zealand remains involved with the International Fund for Ireland, an independent international body set up by the British and Irish Governments in 1986 to promote economic and social advancement, and to encourage dialogue and reconciliation between nationalists and unionists throughout Ireland.

There is a social security agreement in place between New Zealand and Ireland, and a working holiday scheme has been in place since 1995.

Information on New Zealand’s Working Holiday Scheme with Ireland(external link) is available on the Immigration New Zealand website.

Trade

Information on New Zealand’s trade relationship with Ireland is available on the New Zealand Trade Dashboard(external link).

Embassies

• New Zealand is represented in Ireland by the New Zealand Embassy to Ireland
• Ireland is represented in New Zealand by the Embassy of Ireland, Wellington
• Ireland also has a Consulate-General of Ireland in Auckland

Recent official visits

New Zealand to Ireland

• November 2018: Rt. Hon Winston Peters, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade visited Dublin to officially open New Zealand's first resident embassy in Ireland
• January 2018: Hon Damien O’Connor, Minister of Agriculture visited Ireland to discuss agricultural production and trade

Ireland to New Zealand

• March 2015: Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alex White visited New Zealand for St Patrick's Day celebrations
• March 2014: Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney visited for St Patrick's Day celebrations