State Papers – Day One: Haughey lunched for Ireland as costs ran out of control

CHARLIE HAUGHEY may have been lecturing the nation about living beyond its means but he didn’t give a second thought to lunching beyond his department’s means.

As newly-elected Taoiseach in 1980, he spent all of the year’s allocation for official entertainment within the first six months and was impervious to warnings from the Department of Finance that costs would have to be kept under control.

Files show the lunches and dinners he hosted for visiting dignitaries regularly exceeded official spending allowances — often costing twice as much as they were meant to.