€42,000 bill for Higgins’ foreign visits
State paid €28,000 for hotel stay in Sydney
THE Department of Foreign Affairs ran up a €42,000 hotel bill last year on official trips by President Michael D Higgins.
However, both it and the Office of the President have refused to explain how the money was spent or to give details on whether it was for Mr Higgins himself, for staff or for banqueting bills.
Details of the spend were released as part of a data-dump of millions of euro of expenditure by the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2017.
It revealed that a hotel bill of €28,194 was incurred in Sydney last year during a 24-day visit by the President and his wife to Australia and New Zealand.
The transaction was described as ‘hotel and accommodation costs’ in the database and was paid by the local embassy.
However, the department has refused access to the invoice itself, saying records relating to presidential travel are exempt from Freedom of Information.
The Sydney invoice was one of three paid by Foreign Affairs. Access to all three was refused.
On another state presidential visit to Mexico, in February of last year, the department ran up a €7,785 bill on ‘hotel and accommodation costs’.
A separate hotel bill of €6,654 was paid by the protocol division – also in February – but no details are available on what it was for.
In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs said: ‘We are involved in the planning and execution of overseas travel by the President, including the co-ordination of travel arrangements.
‘We are not in a position to provide information on the President’s travel.’
Asked about the bills, a spokesman for the President declined to comment. Details of government jet travel have been made public for the first time, showing that President Higgins has used the service 25 times since the beginning of 2017.