Farmleigh has been used to accommodate foreign dignitaries only once this year, according to the Office of Public Works.
The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, was the only State visitor to use the State guest house. Mr Annan, his wife, Nane, and their entourage of 16 stayed at the stately mansion in the Phoenix Park from October 13th to October 17th.
One of the main reasons cited by the Government for buying the former Guinness estate in 2001 was that it would be an official State guest house for visiting heads of State and dignitaries.
A spokesman for the OPW pointed out that the house could not be used for State visits for the first six months of the year, due to the EU presidency.
"Farmleigh was in constant use for high-level government events for the first six months of this year so it wasn't available for State visits," the spokesman said.
One hundred and eight Government events were held at Farmleigh in those six months. EU and non-EU conferences, lunches, dinners and press conferences were hosted at the house and attended by 5,311 people. In addition, 800 members of the media and 250 delegates attended the Day of Welcomes on May 1st, when Farmleigh hosted 25 EU heads of State.
More than 100 other meetings were held to plan the EU events. The Government also held weekly Cabinet breakfast meetings at Farmleigh during the presidency.
As recently reported in The Irish Times, the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Ó Cuív, spent almost one night a week at the mansion during those six months.
Ministers were offered overnight accommodation at Farmleigh to allow them to attend the early morning meetings. At that time, Mr Ó Cuív's spokeswoman said, the Minister usually arrived in Farmleigh at about 2 a.m., after doing his constituency work in the west. The OPW spokesman said Government ministers had not stayed at the house since the EU presidency ended.
While the house has not been inundated with visits from foreign dignitaries, it has proved popular with the public. It was closed to the public during the EU events but since it reopened in July, more than than 71,300 people have visited the estate.
Guided tours can be arranged by appointment on Thursdays and Fridays and a series of Christmas events will begin on December 4th. Gourmet cookery, flower-arranging and storytelling events will be held during the three weekends before Christmas.
The Government bought the estate from the Guinness family for €29.2 million in 1999 and spent €23 million refurbishing it. However, just a handful of foreign dignitaries have stayed there since. The first foreign dignitary to stay there was the former Chinese premier, Mr Zhu Rongji, in September 2001.
