Government spent over €15k repairing Russian embassy gate

A large lorry crashed into the gates of the Russian Embassy in Dublin last March. Picture: Dublin Weather/PA Wire

Over €15,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent on repairing the gate at the Russian embassy in Dublin.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show the Office of Public Works (OPW) requested funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs in July worth €15,038.75 for the total cost of the repair of the gate at the embassy on Orwell Rd.

Gardaí at the sceme of the truck crash at the Russian embassy. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos

All other data — including the company that supplied and repaired the gate — was redacted with the OPW, citing it as commercially sensitive information.

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik said she is concerned to hear that the repairs to the gate were funded by the Irish taxpayer and said most people would expect that the Russian government should pay.

Desmond Wisley, aged 49, and with an address at Tully, Ballinamore, Leitrim, was charged with dangerous driving and criminal damage after he drove a truck into the gates at the embassy in March.

Desmond Wisley leaves Tallaght District Court, Dublin, on March 7 where he was charged with dangerous driving and criminal damage after a large lorry crashed into the gates of the Russian embassy. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

Mr Wisley, who runs an ecclesiastical supplies company, has been sent forward for trial.

He said he drove the truck into the gates “to keep the pressure on Putin, to stop the war in Ukraine, and especially the murder of innocent children”.

Following the incident, Russia demanded an official apology and full compensation from the Irish government for the damage caused to its embassy’s gate.

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However, there were calls for the Russian ambassador to Ireland, Yury Filatov, to reflect on his country’s invasion of Ukraine rather than repair work to his gate.

Russian ambassador to Ireland Yury Filatov.

Ms Bacik also continues to call for the expulsion of the Russian ambassador, saying that each new revelation about the war in Ukraine “strengthens the case for his expulsion and stronger action to be taken against Russia”.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement: “Our engagement with the Russian embassy here is guided by the fact that we must respect the Vienna Convention — and in turn we expect the Russian Federation to respect the Convention in full in relation to our own embassy in Moscow.

The department engages with all embassies, including the Russian embassy, to ensure they can function in line with the Vienna Convention.” 

In November, the Russian Foreign Ministry placed a travel ban on 52 Irish politicians from entering Russia.

Russia's foreign minister has accused Ukraine and the West of seeking to destroy his country and said Kyiv must accept Moscow's demands for ending the war or else watch as the Russian armed forces achieve the demands on the battlefield.

Sergey Lavrov's comments came a day after Russian president Vladimir Putin said he was open to negotiations, but only on Moscow's terms.