THE IRISH Embassy in London spent more than €250,000 on taxis and limousine hire during 2007 and 2008, according to figures released by the Department of Foreign Affairs last night.
The expenditure – which included hiring limousines to transfer Ministers between terminals in Heathrow Airport – was last night described as clear evidence of squander by Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar who obtained the information on foot of a parliamentary question.
The new figures show that the embassy spent a total of €19,594.03 on taxis, and €127,663 on limousines, during 2007. The total amount spent on hired cars in that year came to €147,257.
In 2008, the total spend fell to €112,472. Spending on taxis was considerably lower at a little over €11,000 with spending on limousines falling to €101,000.
The taxi costs, some €31,000 over two years, were incurred by embassy staff on official duty.
No further breakdown of the costs has been provided. The costs incurred were in addition to the costs of permanent embassy cars in London. Nor has the department disclosed the extent, or cost, of the practice of hiring limousines to pick up Ministers from one terminal at Heathrow Airport and transporting them to another.
Former ceann comhairle John O’Donoghue and Minister for the Environment John Gormley were provided with the limousine service during transfers at Heathrow. Mr Gormley said last week that other Ministers also availed of this service and also maintained he was unaware of the high costs incurred.
The information was provided by Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin in a written answer to Mr Varadkar, who tabled two parliamentary questions on the matter.
In a detailed explanation of the reasons behind such high costs for limousine hire, Mr Martin said it was a long-standing practice internationally, and was decades in existence. He added that the practice of hiring chauffeur-driven cars for visiting Ministers had been discontinued in February this year and new stringent rules were in place.
Among the changes that have been made, he said, was the purchase of a second-hand people-carrier to transport ministerial and other high-level delegations from Ireland.
He said that this and other changes would result in the the bill for 2009 being considerably lower than 2008 or 2007.
“This is further evidence that the Government were squandering millions during the boom and were spending more for less,” said Mr Varadkar last night. He said the figures for limousine hire were extraordinarily high.
“I am pleased that this practice has now changed and it shows the need for greater transparency and scrutiny of spending,” he added.
In his written reply, Mr Martin gave a detailed background explanation to the practice, which he said had been standard international practice for over 30 years.
“The embassy in London services a relatively large number of visits by Government Ministers to Britain as well as a significant number of ministerial transits through London airports,” said Mr Martin.
“For well over 25 years, the embassy in London had routinely hired chauffeur-drive cars for Ministerial delegations and those of other senior office holders visiting Britain or transiting British airports.”
He said there were valid reasons for this practice, including security concerns. Separately, the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism has confirmed that Mr O’Donoghue, who was minister between 2002 and 2007, never requested an upgrade for air travel or for accommodation.
Following a Freedom of Information Request from The Irish Times, the department conducted a trawl of the relevant documentation pertaining to Mr O’Donoghue’s overseas travel.
“I am now in a position to state there is no record of any request made by the former minister where he specified a preference for a hotel, flight, form of transport or upgrade,” said the department’s deciding officer.
