Chauffeur-driven cars commonly used

THE practice of hiring chauffeur-driven cars to ferry ministers short distances between terminals at Heathrow Airport was widespread, it has emerged.

Green leader and Environment Minister John Gormley confirmed yesterday that he had availed of the service, even though the airport runs a free shuttle bus between terminals.

He admitted the costs involved were “wrong” and “shouldn’t be tolerated”.

But Mr Gormley insisted the Irish embassy in London was to blame – and said other ministers used the service as well.

“It’s the embassy. I didn’t even know,” Mr Gormley told RTÉ Radio. “You get off a plane... they say: ‘Here, get into that car here.’ I had no idea...

“As far as I know, every minister that stops off in London is ushered into this car. Because certainly I was speaking to some of my colleagues and I said: ‘Did that happen to you as well?’ and some of them have confirmed that.

“Now the amount of money involved is completely out of scale, I believe, and it’s unacceptable, and we have taken measures to ensure that people reduce their expenditure.”

Details of the service first emerged in the Sunday Tribune newspaper, which revealed the €472 cost of a car to ferry John O’Donoghue between terminals at Heathrow when he was Arts Minister in 2006.

Subsequent revelations about his expenses as Ceann Comhairle led to Mr O’Donoghue announcing his resignation last week.

He will step down when the Dáil convenes at 2.30pm tomorrow, but is expected to first read out a lengthy statement in his defence.

Details of an array of other ministers’ expenses were published by the Sunday Tribune yesterday, including those of Mr Gormley. They showed he had travelled by ferry to Wales for an official engagement in May 2008 in a bid to be environmentally friendly. But a chauffeur-driven car was sent up from London to collect him at Holyhead, and the total cost of car hire for the two-day visit ended up at circa €2,200.

Mr Gormley once again said the car had been ordered by the embassy without his knowledge. But he added: “I do see that the amount of money there is wrong, because if they had hired the car in Wales, it would have cost a lot less.”

Elsewhere, the figures showed one banquet hosted by an Irish delegation at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel during a trade mission to India cost the taxpayer €28,704.

For a 2007 St Patrick’s Day trip to the US, meanwhile, first and business-class flights for Transport Minister Noel Dempsey and his wife cost €8,139 apiece.

The then taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, ran up a bill of €2,400 for one night’s stay in the luxury Dorchester Hotel in London.

Mr Ahern also charged taxpayers for a number of pay-per-view movies while he stayed in hotels in London, the US and Finland.