NY diplomats took over two years to move from $30,000 a month digs

IRELAND’S most senior diplomat in New York was told to find a new home in the city because the $29,995-a-month rent the taxpayer was paying was far too high.

The Consul General had been living in a duplex apartment in the Big Apple with 4,000sq.ft of space and a wraparound balcony with 360° views of New York’s skyline.

The Irish Mail on Sunday previously revealed that the ambassadorial residence in Tokyo – rented at €46,000 a month – was the most expensive of Ireland’s diplomatic missions abroad. It cost €50,000 a month until a 10% rent reduction in 2015.

Meanwhile in New York, in 2013 the Department of

Apartment had a 360° view of city’s skyline

Foreign Affairs asked that the costly New York diplomat be moved to a ‘more cost-effective alternative’.

However, that move ended up taking more than two years – as they struggled to find a suitable property to accommodate the Consul General.

The department had to agree to two separate rollovers of the $29,995-a-month lease on exceptional grounds.

The saga began in December 2013 when the lease on the residence came up for renewal and the property owners signalled that they would be upping the rent and were seeking $35,000 a month.

An internal email from one of the diplomatic staff in New York said: ‘I explained that it would be very difficult to get the agreement of my authorities to such a large increase.’

The Department of Foreign Affairs made some tentative efforts to find a new property. However, it was told that many landlords would not actually accept diplomats as tenants, due to some having previously invoked immunity after leaving properties in a poor state.

The diplomatic staff looked at three properties but eventually negotiated with the landlord, who agreed they could keep the existing apartment for $29,995 per month, with monthly service charges of nearly $2,000.

Back in Dublin, department bosses agreed to an extension of a single year on condition that the consulate continued to look for a cheaper property.

By the end of 2014, the Department of Foreign Affairs again ‘exceptionally’ extended the lease for another year.

Efforts to find a new property were proving difficult because the market in New York was ‘on fire’, according to new Consul General Barbara Jones.

An internal email from Fergal Mythen, the director general of corporate services, to Ms Jones, explained that the annual rent bill needed to be

A second ‘exceptional’ extension to the lease

cut from $360,000 per year to a cost of less than $250,000.

When service charges and parking were taken into account, the actual rent bill was $388,800 annually.

One apartment in a new building called UN Plaza was eventually found, which fit the bill with a monthly rental cost of $23,000, which with parking and service charges worked out at $279,600 per year.

However, that was not the end of it, and when diplomatic staff went to meet the landlord, they learned of a 120-day ‘termination clause’.

‘Our collective assessment is not positive towards the landlord based on these surprise developments,’ said an email from vice-consul Shane Cahill.

Fortunately, another apartment in the same building was also available with just a $500a-month increase on the rent.

A lease on that property was signed off and the Consul General moved into the new apartment early last year.