Paddy’s Day junkets cost a whopping €460k

ST PATRICK is not only responsible for making snakes disappear from Ireland, he also manages to get rid of the majority of ministers as well — at least for a few days in March anyway.

Taxpayers forked out e460,000 so the Taoiseach and 25 government colleagues could roam the globe on the national saint’s day last year, new figures reveal.

While Finance Minister Brian Lenihan never misses a chance to tell the nation it is living well beyond its means, when he was in the justice portfolio last March he did not flinch at the e37,052 cost of him keeping Ireland’s image alive in that most un-Irish of cities — Boston.

Mary Harney and all four of her junior ministers at the Health Department left the woes of the HSE behind them as they headed for places as diverse as Prague, San Francisco and New Zealand at a cost of e79,369.

Then foreign minister Dermot Ahern ran up the biggest bill on his trip to Argentina, which came in at e44,150 for a party of four. That was twice the cost of his junior Minister Dick Roche’s jaunt to China.

Transport Minister Noel Dempsey’s sojourn to Australia saw the taxpayer end up footing the bill to the tune of e38,262 for him and two officials.

Then finance minister Brian Cowen’s tour of Malaysia and Vietnam set taxpayers back e27,245, and may have had a higher cost for former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, as Mr Cowen made a much remarked upon visit to St Luke’s on his return — just before Mr Ahern announced his sudden resignation amid the swirl of contradictory testimony emerging form the Mahon corruption probe.

Junior minister at education Sean Haughey appeared to have drawn the short straw with the trip to chilly Poland (e3,210), while his then boss Mary Hanafin got the glamour gig of New York (e17,169). Labour junior minister Billy Kelleher also fared well with a trip to Charleston with two civil servants (e19,979). Ministers were usually accompanied by aides, and sometimes by spouses.

Then agriculture minister Mary Coughlan attended Paddy’s Day celebrations in sun-drenched Dubai, at a cost of e10,561 for herself, her husband and an official. Now Tánaiste and Enterprise Minister, Ms Coughlan has insisted next month’s visits will be kept to a “reasonable minimum”.

“In view of the current difficult economic climate, the potential provided by these visits to promote trade and business opportunities will be maximised,” Ms Coughlan said.