Enda Kenny’s trip to Davos cost €10,000
Showing there are no cut-price hotel deals available in the Swiss playground for the rich and famous during the annual World Economic Forum, the Department of the Taoiseach has confirmed the accommodation bill was€5,883 or €2,941 per night.
Five officials and one security officer accompanied Mr Kenny.
In total, the cost of the trip between accommodation and ground transport was almost €10,000.
Hotel rates sky-rocketed for the event which saw 1,700 private jets descend on Davos for the world leaders’ meeting.
Along with the accommodation spend of €5,883, and the €3,981 on ground transport, vouched travel and subsistence claims have yet to be submitted.
The spend doesn’t include the costs of the Taoiseach using the Government’s Lear jet.
However, the costs would be about €20,000 based on the 2014 cost of €19,040 using the Gulfstream jet for four hours between Baldonnel and Zurich. The Taoiseach and one official spent two nights at the Central Sport Hotel in Davos while the remainder of the delegation stayed in an apartment in Klosters, 30 minutes away.
According to the Department of the Taoiseach’s Freedom of Information unit, Mr Kenny’s hotel room was allocated by the World Economic Forum secretariat.
In a written Dáil reply to Independent TD Catherine Murphy, Mr Kenny said: “The forum provides a unique opportunity to engage with key figures in international business and politics and my focus while I am in Davos is to promote Ireland’s strengths as a location for investment and trade and meet existing and potential investors in Ireland.
“In availing of this opportunity, I instruct my officials to ensure that costs are minimised and that the best value for money is pursued.”
The Taoiseach’s diary for the three day visit show he met representatives of Google, Facebook, the New York Stock Exchange, the Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Novartis and AT&T.
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