Údarás foreign travel under scrutiny

A REVIEW has been ordered into foreign travel expense claims in Údarás na Gaeltachta over the past five years.

The review will include one staff member’s trip to China at a cost of €14,000 for a meeting with another Irish agency, the IDA.

The state agency charged with bringing development into the Gaeltacht has defended the trip to Shanghai where just one staff member racked up the massive bill, saying it was “deemed necessary to assess a project which was subsequently approved.”

In another incident, two officials from the agency travelled to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia at a cost of €11,700 in 2006 for “meetings with IDA”.

In November 2005, the taxpayer picked up the bill for an €8,000 trip to New York — again, for a meeting with officials from other Irish-based organisations, Bord Fáilte and the IDA.

The Gaeltacht development agency was recently described as a “mini-Fás” by Bernard Allen, chair of the Dáil’s spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Following a number of queries from the committee, the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs said it has ordered an independent review of all foreign travel claims made by the agency between 2005 and 2010. Details submitted to the PAC show close to €380,000 was spent on foreign travel in that period.

As recently as August this year, two officials travelled to Boston, Chicago and New York at a reduced economy class cost of €4,000 for flights and €4,713 in other expenses.

The purpose of the trip was “meetings with existing clients, meeting with IDA Chicago/New York and also meeting potential clients”.

In February 2005 two officials went to the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, and the nearby popular holiday island of Penang for “meetings with existing clients” at a cost of €8,700.

Two months later, another Údarás worker went to Hong Kong for a an “expo conference” at a cost to the taxpayer of €5,700 for one individual over four days.

Weeks later, in May 2005, two different officials flew business class to Capetown in South Africa, again for “meetings with existing clients” at a cost of €10,000 for the four-day trip.

The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs said it has written to the Chief Executive of Údarás and “requested that he arrange, through the organisation’s independent Audit Committee, for a review to be undertaken of foreign travel claims for 2005-2010 and of the arrangements in place in the body to ensure compliance with relevant Department of Finance procedures.”

When completed, the report will be submitted to the state spending watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General.