Department of the Taoiseach spent €450,000 on airfares, gifts, and hotels

The entertainment expenditure included €16,732 to actors who were recorded as part of a Cork Centenary Commemoration event held at the Crawford Gallery in Cork City. Pic: Larry Cummins

Fifty silver bookmarks costing €83 each, €400 for a string quartet to entertain the European Commission president, and €9,700 for pagoda canopies were among the bills run up by the Department of the Taoiseach last year.

Micheál Martin’s department also spent more than €1,100 on flowers, €265 for a shamrock crystal bowl to present to former US president Donald Trump, and €49 on Snack bars.

The details are contained in a database recording €450,000 worth of expenditure on airfares, hotels, entertainment, gifts, and pest control last year.

More than €13,000 was spent on gifts, which included €4,163 for 50 silver bookmarks with a Government Buildings logo, and €2,000 for 200 crystal key chains with an engraving of the department’s Merrion Street headquarters.

Another €4,428 was spent on an unspecified number of silver frames, while the department also splashed out €399.75 for numerous sets of cufflinks for its “gift stock”.

Other items purchased included €25.50 for a frame for an “enrolled constitution” and the €265 spent on a gift for Trump.

A total of €33,634 in spending was categorised as “official entertainment”, with another €15,526 paid out for equipment hire for those events.

Entertainment expenditure

The entertainment expenditure included €16,732 to actors who were recorded as part of a Cork Centenary Commemoration event held at the Crawford Gallery in Cork City.

A further €10,060 was paid out to reimburse costs involved in the same event while four flags costing €905 — each representing the four Cork IRA brigades — were also bought.

Other costs included €800 for a soloist for the National Day of Commemoration and €1,500 for entertainment at a dinner for the visit of EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen last February.

The department also paid out €1,054 for what was described as a “large fabric Government of Ireland branded backdrop”, according to the database.

International hotel bills of just over €35,000 were also incurred, with a bill of €6,141 run up at Davos in Switzerland for accommodation for the Taoiseach’s delegation.

Another €10,289 was splashed out for a four-night hotel stay for then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his six-person entourage at the Fitzpatrick Grand Central Hotel, with the bill dating from September 2019.

Airfares of €47,785 were paid out last year with a significant chunk of that relating to St Patrick’s Day travel in 2020, the arrangements for which had to be changed repeatedly because of the pandemic.

The department paid out almost €30,000 in photography costs, covering a range of official events, meetings, and press briefings.

Catering

A sum of €43,929 was spent on catering for events, which included Cabinet meetings, press conferences, and other occasions.

The largest catering bill was €10,469 for the visit of Ms van der Leyen to Dublin in January of last year, where With Taste provided food at Dublin Castle. Refreshments for the same event cost €3,435, the database of expenditure revealed.

Just under €25,000 was spent on conferences and seminars, including €18,440 for a four-day event and report on carbon tax communication that was held in October last year.

Over €60,000 was spent on training for staff, which saw one person attending an event on “preventing or dealing with disruptive or aggressive behaviour”.

Other bills run up by the Taoiseach’s department included €15,700 for refreshments, €31,092 in mileage, and €2,644 for pest control and “proofing works” to keep unwelcome animal visitors away.

Car hire costs came to just under €38,000, with the largest bill of €9,476 paid out for the Taoiseach’s delegation on a four-night trip to the European Council in Brussels in July of last year.

The department also paid out more than €27,000 for what were described as “ex-gratia payments” with payments of either €2,283 or €3,424 listed for each month.

Asked for a comment on the expenditure, the Government Press Office did not respond.