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No expenses spared for ministers on US junkets
Astronomical travel bills include €15,380 tab for one night in NY
By MAEVE SHEEHAN Sunday February 22 2009

DINING for Ireland comes at a price, and a hefty one at that. IDA Ireland spent €217,000 dispatching enterprise ministers and their officials on transatlantic ministerial trips.
The State agency flew Micheal Martin and his successor at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan, to the US five times in two years to promote Ireland as a location for foreign investment. The IDA did not stint on hospitality for the two ministers, whose trips between them averaged out at €55,000 a go.
The ministers and their entourages stayed in the best hotels, and the IDA ensured chauffeur-driven limousines -- with "non-chatty" drivers and fruit on request -- were at their beck and call for the duration of their stays.
One four-night trip to the west coast in October 2007 cost €48,598. Micheal Martin travelled with four officials and the IDA's chief executive, Barry O'Leary, taking in California's Silicone Valley and Seattle. The flights -- business class for the Minister -- cost €20,769.
To smooth the journey, the IDA also paid €810 to allow the Minister and his party to wait for their flight in the comfort of Dublin Airport's Executive Lounge.
On arrival, a chauffeur-driven car shuttled the Minister and his party to and from meetings in luxury; the bill came to $10,585 for five days.
They stayed one night in the Beverley Hilton in Beverley Hills for $1,886, with the Minister and some officials staying in junior suites and deluxe rooms.
At the Four Seasons in Silicon Valley -- where accommodating the party for two nights cost $3,722 -- the Minister and the IDA hosted a $7,587 dinner for 25 people. The $1,700 drinks bill included 14 bottles of California's finest wines, including four of Chalk Hill Sonoma County Chardonnay at $74 a pop.
Afterwards, the party retired to the bar, where the State development authority stood a $443 round of 36 drinks that included 13 Heinekens, a 16-year-old Glenlivet scotch at $15 and a couple of $21 glasses of wine from the Stags Leap vineyard.
On another four-night trip to Boston in April last year -- which cost €55,043 -- the chauffeur-driven limo alone cost more than the hotel bills at $11,132. The IDA requested a "five-star" chauffeur for Minister Martin and specified that he be "non-chatty".
The car also came with fruit, napkins, a hand sanitiser and a garbage bag.
The hotel bills at Jury's Boston Hotel for the same trip came to $10,490. The Minister was also a special guest at a $25,394 banquet for 75 paid for by the IDA. The guests grazed on canapes such as chilled lobster ($6 apiece) and foie gras mousse ($6.25 apiece), before proceeding to a $165-a-head meal, while entertained by a pianist hired for $350.
Mary Coughlan, the Tanaiste and current Minister for Enterprise and Employment, embarked on her first IDA mission last November. The IDA lavished €60,809 on the six-day trip. The Minister took in Boston, San Antonio, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and Chicago. She was guest of honour at a $15,444 business lunch for 58 people in the Four Seasons in Boston, including a $1,620 flower arrangement.
Her party included her special advisor, private secretary, and the secretary general of her department, Sean Gorman, along with the IDA's Mr O'Leary. In Chicago, the Minister was the special guest at a $3,119 banquet for 17 people at the Signature restaurant. The bill came to $2,519.21, including a $444 tip. A trip in March last year for Mr Martin and three officials to Austin, Texas, and then to Palo Alto, California, cost €37,403, including flights of €22,517.
An overnight trip to New York for the Minister, two officials, and IDA CEO Barry O'Callaghan in February 2007 cost €15,380. The bill included a $2,450 tab for a chauffeur, $1,783 for one night's accommodation for the party of four, flights of €11,613 and another stint in the executive lounge at a mere €380.
The costs of the ministerial trips were borne by the taxpayer and were distributed through the IDA. The details were released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Joan Burton, the Labour finance spokesman, said the costs had to be reviewed.
"It is important that Ministers get out there and promote the country but there has to be some restraint. The impression has grown in recent years that all the normal controls that did exist have become very relaxed," she said. "I think it has to be done in a very strategic way."
- MAEVE SHEEHAN