Leo Dailed out €1.2k gifts of whiskey
Twenty-seven EU leaders gifted booze to mark Varadkar return as Taoiseach
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar with pressient Biden
THE Department of the Taoiseach splashed out more than €4,100 on gifts last year – including €1,241 on Jameson whiskey.
Leaders of each of the 27 EU member states were presented with a bottle of Black Barrel or Caskmates whiskey just days after Leo Varadkar resumed office.
They along with the three presidents of the EU institutions also each received a €5.40 Foods of Athenry porter cake, according to a log of gifts from the department.
Spending while Michael Martin was still Taoiseach amounted to €2,742, a little under half of it relating to the annual St Patrick’s Day trip to the United States.
Mr Martin’s last gift as Taoiseach was a parsimonious one, a Dublin Crystal
Engraved Coaster costing €22.50 for a dignitary from New Zealand.
Earlier in December, he had gifted two books to the Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic – Eamon de Valera – a Will to Power by Ronan Fanning, and Michael Collins: the Man and the Revolution by Anne Dolan and William Murphy.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo De Sousa received a silver bookmark engraved with a sketch of Government Buildings, which cost €67.70.
In September, EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager was gifted a canvas print of a Paul Henry painting, In the West of Ireland. It cost €65.
The book on Michael Collins was also given to the outgoing Japanese Ambassador as they finished up their service in Ireland last September.
Collins biography
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited last July, the Taoiseach gave him a presentational and signed edition of Seamus Heaney’s famous Beacons at Bealtaine.
In department records, the rare item is listed as “complimentary” but would be highly-sought after by collectors.
Gifts for the 2022 St Patrick’s Day jamboree in the United States came to a total cost of €1,251, according to records released under FOI.
That included a number of complimentary gifts including Bord Bia hampers for Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, and Adam King virtual hug pins for Ms Biden, her husband, Mr Emhoff, and VP Harris.
President Biden was also given a signed paperback copy of Seamus
Heaney’s The Government of the Tongue, which was listed as “complimentary” in department records.
The Shamrock Bowl, presented every year to the US President, was in a Celtic Flame design and cost €150. For speaker Nancy Pelosi, the thentaoiseach gifted a silver photo frame with an engraved harp; it came with a price tag of €180.
A woodland bog oak fountain pen for Congressman Mike Kelly cost €117 while Senator Mitch Mcconnell got a book Living in Dublin by Robert O’byrne and Alex Ramsey at €35.
Other items handed out on the visit included a €4 pair of shamrock socks, a €5.84 navy shamrock tote bag, and green lambswool scarf at €27.
news@irishmirror.co.uk
Almost half of the Taoiseach’s spending was US trip STUDY OF SPENDING IN DEPT OF TAOISEACH