County Councils spend €390,000 on foreign trips for St Patrick’s Day
County councils across Ireland splurged more than €390,000 on St Patrick’s Day trips with one single local authority accounting for more than €60,000 of that total.
Limerick City and County Council was again the biggest spender when it came to the annual March 17 jamboree and sent 18 local politicians and officials to three separate locations at an overall cost of €61,527.
Other big-spending councils included Wexford County Council who splashed out around €42,500 on travel and Cork County Council which spent more than €50,000.
However, Limerick City and County Council — as has been the case in previous years — had the biggest outlay with trips to New York and the city of Savannah in Georgia.
Costs for the seven-person delegation that travelled to New York city included €7,913 for flights and a further €13,884 in hotel accommodation costs.
The group stayed at the four-star Lexington Hotel in Manhattan during their five-night trip with additional bills of €735 for airport transfers and just over €3,900 in subsistence expenses.
There was also a €393 bill from the Milton NYC, a tab of €437 at the Westbury Irish Bar, and a charge of €423 at the 5th & Mad bar.
A seven-strong delegation made their way to Savannah for the city’s famous St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Costs for that trip included just over €7,000 for flights and an €11,440 accommodation bill at the four-star luxury DeSoto Hotel, which has a pool terrace and a cabana bar.
Another €1,047 was spent at the Clayton Hotel near Dublin Airport so the visiting group could make their early morning flight to Atlanta before a short hop to Savannah itself.
Other costs listed by the council were €2,244 in subsistence expenses and €272 for baggage fees, although the council said the luggage charges would be refunded.
A third four-person delegation travelled to Queens in New York for the annual Rockaway Parade.
Costs on that trip included €2,361 in flights, a €2,978 hotel bill, subsistence of €2,350, €430 in airport transfers, and meals totalling €1,176.
The next highest local authority bill was that of Cork County Council where 16 officials and local representatives travelled to Detroit, New York, and Chicago.
Combined costs were nearly €54,000 which were relatively evenly split between hotel and flight charges.
The hotels in New York proved particularly expensive for the council with one receipt for the Fitzpatrick Manhattan Hotel listing a charge of €3,195 for a room from March 15 to March 20.
The hotel bill in Detroit was much more reasonable where the delegation stayed at the five-star Godfrey, with the bill for a four-night stay around €1,060.
The council provided only a composite figure of €10,500 for accommodation costs in Chicago but did not include the name of the hotel that was used.
Wexford County Council spent the third most of the country’s local authorities on its St Patrick’s Day voyage with a final bill of at least €42,500.
That was enough to pay for 13 councillors and staff to travel to New York, Boston and Savannah.
A group of just three travelled to the Big Apple where they were put up in the four-star Concorde Hotel while the group who went to Boston stayed in the four-star Hilton Hartford Hotel.
The most frugal of the local authorities were Galway City Council and Westmeath County Council, where St Patrick’s Day costs were only a little above €5,000.
In Galway, that covered the cost of travel for the chief executive and mayor to Seattle and a stay at the three-star Mayflower Hotel.
Other costs on the trip included €1,000 for a mayoral driver and €450 for gifts from Claddagh Jewellers, Elverys, Eason and Mr Price.
In all, 25 of the 31 county councils in Ireland sent a delegation abroad with costs totalling at least €391,564, or an average cost of around €15,600.
Some of the more unusual items of expenditure from around the country included two €120 tickets for the County Leitrim Society of New York dinner dance and €150 worth of Pure Oskar Curragh Sheep Soaps bought as gifts by Kildare County Council.
No representatives were sent from any of the four councils in Dublin, while Cork City Council and Waterford City and County Council also opted not to send a delegation away in March.
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