The embassy, together with the Kennelly family, has also printed over 1,000 posters containing a picture of the mising man, and distributed them to hospitals, Irish bars and English-speaking businesses in Paris. The poster was also distributed on all Ryanair and Aer Lingus flights to Paris during the Rugby World Cup.

Foreign affairs minister Dermot Ahern told the Dail last week that the Irish embassy in Paris had been in daily contact with the missing person's family since the day of his disappearance.

Ahern and the Taoiseach met Kennelly's wife and son while on a business trip to Paris on 22 September. "I regret that despite these extensive efforts there has been no indication of the whereabouts of the individual concerned, " he said.

The family are continuing in their efforts to find Kennelly, who is a popular figure in his native Listowel. It is understood his wife believes it is possible that her husband is lying in a coma in a Paris hospital. The Kennelly family have a history of neurological conditions and John Kennelly's mother died from an aneurism while in her 40s. The missing man was on blood pressure tablets when he left his hotel on Sunday morning, 9 September, carrying a number of books and his passport, to go for a brief stroll before returning to Cork that afternoon.

There has been no trace of him since.

Hampering the search is the fact France's strict privacy laws mean hospitals are extremely reluctant to give out information on a missing person, as the individual may not want such information released.