WHAT A WASTE
Fury at civil servant’s €2,000 luxury hotel trip for portugal Web summit
IRISH taxpayers stumped up €2,000 for a Government official to stay at a five-star hotel for a web conference in Portugal last year.
The lavish four-night spend was approved by his bosses after the State lost the hosting rights of the conference in Dublin in 2016.
Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy criticised the Department of Foreign Affairs over the trip.
The TD said: “It’s totally understandable when civil servants are sent abroad on official business, they can travel in reasonable comfort and are put up in decent accommodation.
“But this is public money so there has to be a very strict eye on value for money.”
Officials defended the splurge saying it was important for civil servants to enjoy the height of luxury for “networking” .
The Irish Mirror’s Freedom of Information request revealed Bobby Mcdonagh, director of the policy and communications division, stayed at the Intercontinental in Lisbon.
His room costs hit €1,460 while €260 was spent on subsistence and the flights bill totalled €314.
The director of the department’s web and digital section also travelled for the event but the junior colleague’s costs were far more modest.
Ciara Traynor’s flights bill was €142 while €202.50 was spent on her hotel stay.
A department spokesman defended the spending. He added: “Ciara Traynor stayed for three nights in Brown’s Downtown Hotel, Lisbon. Bobby Mcdonagh stayed in Lisbon for an additional night due to meetings with the Portuguese Foreign Ministry.
“While there he stayed in the Intercontinental Hotel.
“This hotel was recommended by organisers of the web summit due to his role as speaker/facilitator and, given the significance of the conference, it was agreed he should stay at one of the speaker hotels to facilitate networking and contact building.”
Ms Murphy hit out at the “substantial” differences” between the officials’ expenses, adding: “It’s hard to see any justification for this.”
Dublin suffered a blow when Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave moved the event from his home city after repeated clashes with the Government.
He hit out at the State for not supporting his conference, which had suffered a broadband breakdown.
The event has now become the largest tech summit in the world.
It was estimated to be worth tens of millions to the local economy and it bolstered Dublin’s claim to being a conference destination.
Lisbon has now secured the rights and following last November’s second hosting it is now installed in the Portuguese capital as one of the city’s key visitor events.
Similar FOI requests were sent to all Government departments, which revealed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was the only one that had records of officials attending the Web Summit last year.
It’s public money and there has to be a strict eye on value for money
CATHERINE MURPHY
YESTERDAY
ONCE more we see another example of a fatcat public servant living it up at the taxpayers’ expense.
We thought we had seen the end of this with the onset of the recession, but, it seems old habits die hard.
A relatively senior civil servant, not at the top of the tree by any means, landed us with a bill for a trip away for a few days of over €2,000, including an exorbitant hotel bill of nearly €1,500.
That’s almost €400 a night.
Now, nobody is suggesting that civil servants representing the State overseas should not be entitled to some comfort
But a €400-a-night stay in one of Lisbon’s finest hotels, the five-star Intercontinental, is outrageous.
And to add insult to injury to the taxpayer, his junior colleague was able to stay down the road in another hotel – which we can assume was perfectly adequate – for just €200-odd, total, for three nights.
The ultimate irony of course is they were attending the Web Summit, the world’s premier tech conference that was literally hounded out of its original home in Dublin.
The spending was extravagant and downright wrong.
It just goes to show though, that while everything changes, some things always stay the same.