Ministers jet off for Patrick’s Day

And they are off!

The Taoiseach and all but one of the Government’s 29 ministers will jet off across the globe for St Patrick’s Day.

Despite Fine Gael and Labour promising to cut back on the annual travel extravaganza after branding some of the trips “junkets” while in opposition, almost the entire administration will spend the national holiday abroad in exotic locations such as Mexico, Japan and Australia.

Even though the Programme for Government agreed by the two parties clearly states: “We will abandon the practice of providing a ‘mid-term break’ — a full week off at St Patrick’s Day and Halloween,” the Oireachtas is not scheduled to meet in the week of the March 17 holiday.

Opinion was divided amongst TDs at Leinster House over which Minister had been given the trip to be most envious of.

Some said it was Environment Minister Alan Kelly, who got China, while others thought it was Communications Minister Alex White for landing New Zealand.

A St Patrick’s Day trip to New Zealand in 2010 by then health minister Mary Harney drew withering sarcasm from then Labour leader Eamon Gilmore who branded it a “Lord of the Rings trail,” with the only thing missing from the ministerial schedule being “a dinner hosted by Bilbo Baggins”.

Despite the Government’s insistence the trips are all about generating trade, Africa’s two biggest economies, Nigeria and South Africa, have been ignored.

Similar snubs last year to rising economic super powers Brazil and India have been reversed this year, but no minister will visit Argentina, even though it is a member of the G20 block of the world’s major economies.

Junior minister for foreign affairs, Sean Sherlock, will visit Ethiopia, which receives the biggest amount of Irish overseas aid, while Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin gets the long-haul trip to Japan.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny will make the annual visit to the White House, whilst seven other ministers will also visit the USA

The most controversial of these will be by chief whip Paul Kehoe who attends the celebrations in Savannah, Georgia, which are notorious because organisers do not allow women to attend the official dinner.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar used his speech to the Savannah dinner last year to stress to organisers that Ireland had changed radically in recent years in terms of the role of women, and gay equality issues.

Foreign affairs minister, Charlie Flanagan, who will visit Canada and New York, insisted the €300,000 he expected the various trips to cost, was money well spent.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan is the only minister to remain at home.