Department of the Taoiseach splashed out on tea and coffee

THE Taoiseach’s Department splashed out almost €97,000 on newspapers, tea, coffee and water last year, it has emerged.

Independent TD Mattie McGrath sought the figures from Leo Varadkar’s Department – and criticised the overall level of spending.

‘If you dig a little deeper, you find that Taoiseach Varadkar’s Department also spent almost €123,000 on hotels during 2017,’ he said.

‘What is deeply galling is that he admits in his reply to me that there was no expenditure incurred by his Department on value for money and policy reviews in 2017.’

It was revealed that the Department spent €71,492 on newspapers and over €25,000 on tea, water and coffee in 2017. It also spent more than €78,000 on advertising and photography, and €257,006 on foreign travel tickets – while the bill for entertainment hit €112,714.

Translations into Irish cost more than €10,000, while translations into other languages cost a meagre €211.50. There were also costs of more than €22,000 for taxis.

Staff uniforms cost more than €7,000, while it also appears that one member of staff claimed a footwear allowance of €190.

The Department had a total of 203 employees in 2015, when employment figures were last published in its annual report. It had not replied to a request for comment by the time of going to print.