The information sought by the Deputy in relation to overnight usage of Farmleigh and the annual running costs of Farmleigh in each of the 5 years from 2002 to 2006 is given in the following tables. In addition to the cost of running Farmleigh as the premier guest facility for visiting Heads of State, the expenditure in each year supported significant other activity at Farmleigh in relation to its use as a venue for high level meetings and also the very successful public access and event programme. Details of these other activities are given in the attached tables also. In relation to the cost of overnight visits per head, while the OPW which manages Farmleigh, would have incurred costs associated with those visits, those costs would have been small in the context of the overall cost of the visits where most of the expenditure would have been borne by the Department of Foreign Affairs and/or the Department of the Taoiseach in relation to catering and general hospitality costs, and by the Garda Síochána in relation to security costs
Annual OPW Expenditure on Farmleigh Running Costs
|
2006
|
2005
|
2004
|
2003
|
2002
|
|
€m
|
€m
|
€m
|
€m
|
€m
|
Operating/Running costs
|
3.357
|
3.183
|
3.563
|
3.456
|
4.586
|
Usage Patterns:
Summary of Residential Visits in recent years:
|
Year
|
No. of Guests
|
No. of Bednights
|
Duration of overnight stays
|
Main State Visits/Guests (Heads of State)(Overnights)
|
2002
|
127
|
205
|
1 – 3
|
Ethiopia, Luxembourg, Latvia, Nigeria, Slovenia
|
2003
|
134
|
258
|
1 – 5
|
Malaysia, Germany, Chile
|
2004
|
114
|
264
|
1 – 5
|
Secretary General of U.N.
|
2005
|
164
|
394
|
1 – 3
|
Hungry, Japan, Con of Judges, Serbia, Canada, Bulgaria
|
2006
|
102
|
269
|
1 – 4
|
Croatia, Australia, Norway, New Zealand, Egypt,
|
2004 figures do not include guests for special EU Day of Welcomes ceremony on 1st May.
Summary of High Level Events held at Farmleigh:
Year
|
No. of Events
|
Nos Attending
|
2004
|
250*
|
8,141
|
2005
|
64
|
3,236
|
2006
|
96
|
4,350
|
* EU Presidency.
Public Access:
Summary of Public Events Programme
|
Year
|
Total No. of Visitors
|
No. of Guided Tours of House and Library
|
Total No. of Public Events
|
2003
|
120,928
|
359
|
22
|
2004
|
98,152
|
120
|
53
|
2005
|
180,487
|
161
|
58
|
2006
|
277,005
|
134
|
54
|