Gardai to pay €250,000 to get on their bikes again
AN GARDA Siochana is set to spend €250,000 on 200 new mountain bikes as it expands bicyclemounted patrols of towns and cities across the country.
It follows the purchase of 50 mountain bikes last year, along with the acquisition of eight electric bicycles as part of a pilot initiative. By last August, there were 556 mountain bikes in the national fleet and there are believed to be more than 1,000 gardai who are specially trained to conduct bike patrols.
Tenders
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar handed out porter cakes, 15-year-old bottles of whiskey, sliotars and a Mayo jersey as gifts in his final full year in office. His department spent €6,000 on presents in 2023 for presentation to heads of state, dignitaries and for use on official trips to the US, Ukraine and elsewhere.
The priciest present was the €1,100 paid for a sterling silver bell given to US Vice President Kamala Harris on St Patrick’s Day last year.
Mr Varadkar said the item was a “token of appreciation and [an] emblem of peace and freedom” and gave Ms Harris a silver St Brigid’s Cross brooch worth
€57.90 as well.
The Department of the Taoiseach spent €800 on Bushmills whiskey and porter cakes for leaders of each of our EU partners, as well as the presidents of the European Commission, European Council and European Parliament.
Worth
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy received two volumes
LEO’S LARGESSE: Jill Biden, Yu Suk Yeol, Kamala Harris, Volodymyr Zelensky of plays by Brian Friel, which together cost €69.50, while President of South Korea Yoon Suk Yeol was presented with a €114 bottle of whiskey.
US President Joe Biden got a crystal bowl worth €100, an Irish rugby jersey, an Irish women’s soccer jersey and a Mayo jersey worth €75.
Gifts for his wife, Jill Biden, included a St Brigid’s Cross brooch worth €57.90.