€70,000 air fare bill for Bord Bia executives

TOP executives at Bord Bia spent more than €70,000 on business-class flights from January to November last year, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

The most expensive trips taken by the food board were €7,719 for a flight to Dubai and Tokyo in February last year, and €5,519 to Tokyo and Shanghai in January. Both trips were taken by Michael Murphy, director of markets, and related to a ministerial trade mission to Japan.

Other top spendings at the taxpayers’ expense included €5,467 on a business-class trip to Beijing for an international meat exhibition in May, and €5,104 for a flight to Toyko in March for a meeting with Japanese authorities regarding market access for Irish meat.