€560k spent on Govt St Patrick's day trips
This year Ministers will jet around the world representing Ireland for St Patrick's Day. Last year Taoiseach Bertie Ahern went to the US, while ministers and officials went to Italy, Russia, Singapore, Vietnam and other places.
How much did all this travel cost? And what kind of things did the ministers and their entourages spend the money on? Cian McCormack found out using the Freedom of Information Act.
The total cost to send the Taoiseach and 27 junior ministers and officials abroad to represent Ireland for St Patrick's Day was more than €560,000.
However, that figure itself could be higher because the cost of the Government jet - which was used by the Taoiseach, Minister Mary Harney and Minister Seamus Brennan - was not included in any response to the FOI requests that were submitted by Morning Ireland.
Also, Minister Frank Fahey's trip to India was not included in the Department of Justice response.
Also, other departments did not include accommodation costs because they could not. For example, when Minister John O'Donoghue was at Cheltenham his accommodation was paid for by Horse Racing Ireland.
The most expensive trip taken was Noel Dempsey's to the US from 13 to the 23 March. It cost almost €75,000 for Mr Dempsey, his wife Bernadette, his press advisor, the Assistant Principal and Executive officer of the Department of Communications, Marine & Natural Resources to travel to Atlanta, San Francisco and San Antonio. Flights for the five people cost €42,000.
Mr Dempsey's flights from Dublin to Atlanta and then from San Francisco to Dublin via London cost more than €8,100. He flew business, first and economy classes. His wife Bernadette's flights cost the same.
The flights for the three officials with the Minister cost €6,700 each. There were also internal flights in the US totaling over €5000. Another big cost for this delegation was the chauffeur and car hire, which cost €19,500.
Costing more than €52,000, the next most expensive St Patrick's Day trip was an Enterprise Ireland delegation to Malaysia and Singapore. Minister of State Michael Ahern was on that trip from March 8 to 17.
Finance Minister Brian Cowen's traveled to Chicago with his private secretary and two special advisors. That trip cost nearly €36,000. The delegation flew business class and each flight cost more than €3,000, but the biggest cost on that trip was €13,000 for car hire.
Tom Parlon, who was The Minister of State at the Department of Finance, with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works at the time, went to South Africa. That cost almost €35,000. The flights for Mr Parlon, his wife, and two officials cost over €22,000. Accommodation on that trip cost about €10,000.
A trip to Phoenix for Minister Éamon Ó Cuív and three officials cost more than €30,000 for five days. One of the bigger expenses on that trip was €5,200 for Limousine services for the entire party.
Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern, along with an official party of four, was in Washington DC. The total costs including flights and accommodation came in at more than €30,000.
The Taoiseach traveled to New York and Washington DC by Government jet. There was party of ten and it cost about €18,000, not including the cost of the jet.
When you break down the figures, limos, taxis and car rental account for a large amount of the expense. For all the Government parties abroad Limo, chauffeur and car services amounted to more than €90,000.
Some of the receipts received under the Freedom of Information Act show for example in the case of Minister for Agriculture & Food Mary Coughlan, that the limo company was charging $75 dollars an hour. One receipt was for more than 17 hours plus a tip.
Minister Coughlan's delegation spent more than €6,600 on limos; John O'Donoghues spent more than €8,800 in Britain; Noel Dempsey's delegation spent more than €19,000 for limos; €5,500 was spent on similar transport for Mary Harney's delegation and almost €4,000 was spent by Martin Cullen's delegation when he was in San Francisco.
The total bill for accommodation came in at about €100,000. One of the most expensive rooms, from the receipts obtained, was an apartment in the Hassler Roma hotel for Minister Seamus Brennan. It cost €1,650 per night. He stayed two nights, which is a total of €3,300.
The three officials traveling with him stayed at the same hotel and it cost €418 per night for a room.
Flights were another big expense. It cost Batt O'Keefe more than €5,300 to fly from Dublin to Vietnam and Thailand via Paris and then back to Cork. The same amount was spent for his wife.
Dick Roche's flights to Canada via Amsterdam cost more than €3,800 and about €2,600 for his wife. It cost €9,000 for Martin Cullen to fly to San Francisco.
There were other costs associated with flying -- VIP services in airports, which cost more than €4,500.
Minister of State Sean Haughey's delegation spent the most on these VIP services. More than €1,100 was spent in Frankfurt on the way to Moscow and more than €300 in Moscow, according to the figures obtained through Freedom of Information. Minister of State Mary Wallace's party spent almost €1,000 on VIP services on her way to Vienna and Mary Harney's VIP airport services amounted to more than €720.
It explains that Minister Brennan went to Rome for St Patrick's Day, which 'offers a unique opportunity to promote Ireland abroad'.
It says Italy is Ireland's seventh largest merchandise trading partner with Irish exports to Italy worth €3.6bn and that inward investment from Italy currently shows 29 companies with over 13,000 jobs in the Irish Economy. However, there were no specific meetings on this visit about specific inward investment opportunities.
