MINISTER BLEW €36K ON ST PAT’S FLIGHTS
Outrage over cost of Murphy’s jet-set trips to Asia & South America
HOUSING Minister Eoghan Murphy blew €36,000 of taxpayers’ cash on flights to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, the Irish Mirror can reveal.
He and two staff stayed in luxury hotels in Asia costing over €5,134.85 and shelled out €10,881.60 on flights for the trip. He also splurged nearly €26,000 on flights to South America last month on a junket.
Sinn Fein’s Eoin O’broin fumed: “It’s outrageous.”
HOUSING Minister Eoghan Murphy splashed €36,000 on St Patrick’s Day trips to Asia and South America – and the taxpayer footed the bill.
The huge sum went on jetting him and two staff on international and internal flights to Argentina, Chile, Japan and South Korea.
And we can reveal it wasn’t the first time the big-spending minister splurged taxpayers’ hard-earned cash as his entourage paid a Tokyo limousine hire firm €2,064.11 to ferry them around in a people carrier.
It comes as Minister Murphy is supposed to be tackling the chronic homeless problem with 10,000 people – nearly 4,000 of them children – without a permanent roof over their heads.
As recently as Friday a homeless man was found dead at a bus station in Cork.
The huge spending by the Minister and his department is revealed in figures released to the Irish Sunday Mirror under a Freedom of Information request.
A spokesman for the Housing Department said: “A limousine hire in Tokyo last year is included in the foreign travel template.”
Another €1,115.76 was spent on car hire in Seoul – which the Department of Housing paid for.
The spokesman added: “The cost was paid for by our Embassy in Japan and subsequently reimbursed to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade by this Department [Housing].”
However, the Foreign Affairs department insisted it was a people carrier hired for staff.
The Irish Sunday Mirror has learned similar transport arrangements were made for Mr Murphy while he represented the country on St Patrick’s Day last month in South America.
The spokesman added: “The embassies in Chile and Argentina made similar arrangements for travel this year however, their invoices have not yet been received.”
Flights to Argentina and Chile for the Minister and two members of his delegations amounted to €25,855.83 – including internal flights.
Return flights for all three, at a cost of €12,950.19 were cancelled by the department and re-booked at a cost of €12,380.88 after they decided to “fly out a day earlier”.
FOI documents showed the department expects to get some of the money back for the cancelled flights but it is unsure if they will be fully reimbursed.
The cost of hotels and meals on the South American trip are not yet available – but will push up the total cost of the junket.
The Fine Gael minister along with two members from his delegation lived a lavish lifestyle abroad, staying at three different luxury hotels across 10 days while in Japan and Korea last year. The three stayed at the five-star Plaza Hotel in Seoul, the Rhiga Royal Hotel in Tokyo and a hotel in Hiroshima at the cost of €5,134.85 while their flights came to €10,881.60. Posting about his trip on his blog at the time, Mr Murphy said: “I had the honour of representing Ireland in Korea and Japan to mark St Patrick’s Day celebrations. “These are two hugely important markets for Ireland – trade with them is increasing all the time. “It is essential we diversify our markets after Brexit and both offer great opportunities in that regard. We also have active Irish communities there and it is important to maintain these links.
“It was very useful to engage with experts on housing policy in some of the most densely-populated areas on Earth – I met with my counterpart in Japan and visited a regeneration project in Tokyo.
“I also had the chance to lay a wreath at the cenotaph in Hiroshima on behalf of the people of Ireland.”
The Irish Sunday Mirror contacted representatives for Mr Murphy about the car hire and flight costs.
A spokesman said: “The minister travelled with the ambassador on both trips. Arrangements in respect of accommodation, transport, translation and business card costs are organised by the embassies in advance of the minister’s trips.”
While in Japan and Korea, €2,999.82 was also spent on translation services and the “printing of business cards in Korean and English”.
Sinn Fein’s Eoin O Broin said the massive flight and hotel bills and expensive car hire is “an abuse of taxpayers’ money”.
He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “This shows the sense of entitlement some members of the Government have and are willing to waste so much of taxpayers’ money. It’s outrageous.
“With regards to flights, overseas trips are important but it’s hard to understand
This shows the sense of entitlement some of the government members have
EOIN O BRION YESTERDAY
how the flights cost that money. These trips are known about well in advance, I would like an explanation why cheaper flights weren’t available.”
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: “In his St Patrick’s trips abroad this year and last year, minister Murphy travelled in a State car already owned by the Embassy.
“This is standard practice in line with travel guidelines.
“A visiting minister travels in the same car as our ambassador in a host country, allowing time for briefings and confidential conversations.
“At no point was a limousine hired or paid for by our embassy. It would be incorrect to claim that it was.
“The figure of €2,064.11 for vehicle hire in Tokyo refers to a people carrier and driver hired for five days.
“This was for the transport of embassy staff, the minister’s staff and staff from our State agencies.
“Ireland exports more than €8billion and €1billion in goods and services to Japan and the Republic of Korea respectively,
and the minister’s visit featured a busy programme of high-level engagements and trade-focused meetings involving these staff members.
“With regard to the costs of translators and business cards, as Mr Murphy does not speak Japanese or Hangul and many of the businesspeople or politicians he met did not speak English, the services
of translators were sought for some meetings. The exchange of business cards at the start of a meeting is also a cultural necessity in Japan and the Republic of Korea and expected practice at business meetings. “With regard to hotel costs, our embassies are always aware of getting competitive rates for a visiting delegation and keep the costs of local hotels under constant review to secure best value. “Given that Tokyo is one of the largest business hubs of the world, the prices paid were very competitive.”
THE Housing Minister splashed out nearly €26,000 on flights to South America for Paddy’s Day – and the taxpayer footed the bill, the Irish Sunday Mirror has revealed.
And this wasn’t the first time Eoghan Murphy splurged public cash on luxuries.
During a trip to Japan and Korea last year, the Fine Gael TD and his entourage hired a car from a limousine firm for five days in Tokyo – at a cost of more than €2,000.
These revelations come as Mr Murphy is supposed to be tackling the homeless crisis.
More than 10,000 people – 4,000 of whom are children – are without a roof over their heads.
The minister’s spending sprees were revealed after a man believed to be homeless was found dead in a sleeping bag at a Cork bus station.
And more families risk losing their homes if Mr Murphy fails to address the housing crisis.
A report by Daft.ie out reveals the average price of a property near a DART or Luas stop has reached €512,000 – and this figure spikes to more than €800,000 in parts of South Dublin.
Children are going to bed hungry in shelters surrounded by drug addicts and a generation of young people struggle to fathom how they will be able to buy a home.
Meanwhile, Mr Murphy is enjoying the high life in limos and posh hotels.
He needs to get his priorities straight and come up with solutions for long-suffering and hard-working people.