Official Travel

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 January 2011

Tuesday, 18 January 2011

Ceisteanna (51, 52, 53, 54)

Lucinda Creighton

Ceist:

98 Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Taoiseach if he will provide details of any foreign trips made by him in the year 2010 and to date in 2011; the purpose of each trip; the costs associated with each trip broken down by air travel, ground transportation, hotel accommodation and entertaining expenses; if air travel was by way of commercial airline or Government jet; the exact mode of ground transportation used; the name of each hotel and the nature of the entertainment for which the expenses were incurred; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2682/11]

Freagraí scríofa

The Taoiseach

The table below details all foreign travel by me from 1st January 2010 to date. Costs in respect of the Government Jet are not included as they are paid by the Department of Defence.

Costs of Foreign Travel from 1st January 2010 to date
14 January — Meeting with Prime Minister Brown, London
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
Car Hire	€370.45
25 January 2010 — Meeting with Prime Minister Brown, London
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
Car Hire	€529.22
11 February — European Council, Brussels
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
Car Hire	€337.50
12-18 March — St Patrick’s Day Programme, USA
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
Air Ticket/ Cancellation Charge	€164.06
Car Hire	€10,616.12
Name of Hotel	Hilton Hotel, Chicago
	Four Seasons Hotel, San Francisco
	St Regis Hotel, Washington
Cost of Hotels	€1,684.87
Nature of entertainment expenses	Lunch with Members of the Ireland America Economic Advisory Board / Porterage charges
Total cost of Entertainment expenses	€2,704.04
25-26 March — European Council Brussels
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
Car Hire	€1,315.00
Name of Hotel	Radisson Blu
Cost of Hotel	€500.00
7 May — Meeting of Heads of State or Government of the Euro Area, Brussels
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
Car Hire	€312.50
17-18 May — E.U. Latin American & Caribbean Summit and bilateral meetings, Madrid
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
Name of Hotel	Hotel Hesperia
Cost of Hotel	€211.86
17 June — European Council, Brussels
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
Car Hire	€682.50
Name of Hotel	Radisson Blu
Cost of Hotels (Cancellation charges)	€217.00
23 June — Meeting with Prime Minister Cameron, London
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
25 June — British-Irish Council Summit, Guernsey
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
11-15 July — Official trip to New York/Atlanta
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
Car Hire	€9,218.90
Name of Hotel	Fitzatrick’s Hotel, New York
	Carlton Hotel, Atlanta
Cost of Hotels	€838.39
Nature of entertainment expenses	Dinner to mark the opening of the new Irish Consul Generalate in Atlanta (14 guests in total )
Entertainment expenses	€935.88
16 September — European Council, Brussels
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
Car Hire	€657.50
4-5 October — ASEM VIII Summit and bilateral meetings, Brussels
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
28 -29 October — European Council, Brussels
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
13 December — British-Irish Council Summit, Isle of Man
Mode of Travel	Government Jet
16-17 December — European Council, Brussels
Mode of Travel	Government Jet

Lucinda Creighton

Ceist:

99 Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Taoiseach if he will provide details of any foreign trips made by officials in his Department in the years 2009, 2010 and to date in 2011; the purpose of each trip; the costs associated with each trip broken down by air travel, ground transportation, hotel accommodation and entertaining expenses; if air travel was by way of commercial airline or Government jet; the mode of ground transportation used; the name of each hotel; the nature of the entertainment for which expenses were incurred; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2697/11]

The Taoiseach

There were a total of 157 foreign trips made by officials in my Department. The breakdown requested by the Deputy is not readily available. The table details the total cost of foreign trips made by the Taoiseach, Ministers of State and officials in my Department from 1st January 2009 to date.

Foreign Travel Costs	2009	2010	2011
	€	€	€
Air Travel*	115,354.11	56,036.00	0
Hotel Costs	87,262.45	36,561.75	190.49
Taxi	1,489.08	950.57	0
Car Hire	48,721.14	29,178.85	0
Rail/Train	366.98	2,636.92	0
Ferry	0	686.00	0
Other receipted expenditure	2,341.40	6,894.12	0

*Excluding the cost of the Government Jet which is met by the Department of Defence.

Lucinda Creighton

Ceist:

100 Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Taoiseach if he will provide details of hotel accommodation used by him within the State while on ministerial duties in the years 2009, 2010 and to date in 2011; the name of each hotel in which he stayed; the costs associated with each stay and the purpose of each trip; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2727/11]

The Taoiseach

The table below details hotel accommodation within the State used by me on official duties during the years 2009 to date.

Date	Name of Hotel	Purpose of Trip	Cost
18 March 2009	Park Inn, Shannon Airport	Return flight from Washington to Baldonnel was diverted to Shannon Airport at 12.30am due to weather conditions.	€101.23

Lucinda Creighton

Ceist:

101 Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Taoiseach if he will provide details of any foreign trips made by officials in public bodies under the remit of his Department in the years 2009, 2010 and to date in 2011, the purpose of each trip; the costs associated with each trip broken down by air travel, ground transportation, hotel accommodation and entertaining expenses; if air travel was by way of commercial airline or Government jet; the mode of ground transportation used; the name of each hotel; the nature of entertainment for which expenses were incurred; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2742/11]

The Taoiseach

The table below details foreign trips made by official in programmes and bodies under the aegis of my Department from 1st January 2009 to date.

Law Reform Commission

Date	Purpose of Journey	Flight	Hotel Cost	Hotel Name	Public Transport/ Taxis
2009
Jan	2 Officials attended End of Life Decision Making: Dilemmas and Directions, Legal Research in Birmingham	€135.92	Nil	Nil	€123.21
May	1 Official attended Trier-Cross Border mediation conference in Luxembourg for Legal Research	€254.10	€396.00	Park Plaza Trier	Nil
2010
April	1 Official attended The Fourth Conference of the Commission on European Family Law: the Future of Family Property in Europe, in Cambridge	€160.96	€114.50		€11.80
June	2 Officials attended “5 Jurisdictions Meeting” in London for meeting of 5 Law Reform Commissions	€862.08	£546.39	Bloomsbury Hotel	Nil
July	1 Official attended “Meeting of the European Forum of Official Gazettes” in Rome	€166.00	€259	Nazionale Hotel	Nil

Irish Newfoundland Partnership

Year	Purpose	Air travel costs	Hotel	Taxis	Entertainment Expenses
March 2009	1 official INP meetings in St. John’s, Newfoundland and planning meetings regarding the official opening of Irish exhibition in The Rooms	€3,331.59	Sheraton Hotel €913.06	€104.84	€357.54
May 2009	1 official INP meetings in St. John’s, Newfoundland	€1,014.06	€0	€45.89	€0
September 2009	3 officials INP meetings in St. John’s and official opening of Irish exhibition in The Rooms	€2,597.23	Sheraton Hotel €1,464.04	€140.96 (2 officials)	€0

National Forum on Europe

Year	Purpose	Air travel costs
May 2009	Meeting in Brussels	€158.84

NESDO

The National Economic and Social Development Office (NESDO) comes under the aegis of my Department. The information sought is contained in the following tabular statement. Air travel in all cases was by way of commercial airlines. The total cost of foreign trips in 2009 was €8,644.57 and in 2010 was €4,408.06. There have been no foreign trips made by officials of NESDO so far in 2011.

It was not possible in the time available to capture all the detail requested by the deputy, as some of it applies to two former constituent bodies of NESDO, the National Economic and Social Forum (NESF) and the National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP) which were discontinued on 1 April 2010. I will communicate with the deputy when the complete information is available.

Date	Purpose of Journey	Flights	Hotel Cost	Hotel Name	Taxis	Other
		€	€		€	€
Apr-09	Berlin Work in Net Conference	223.05			14.50
Apr-09	East Midlands Hospital of the Future Meeting with Peter Totterdell	83.69	265.09	Hotel Izaak
May-09	Boston, Harvard, Women’s Leadership Board	2,216.40	880.00	Charles Hotel Boston
2009	Speaker Helsinki University of Technology	443.76			96.50
May-09	London (Details on purpose of journey to follow)	118.81			37.24
Jun-09	Brussels/Maastricht, Symposium on Health Care Reform	240.74	Hotel Costs paid by third party and claimed from NCPP	Hotel Mabi
Jun-09	Amsterdam Institute for Advanced labour Studies	Details to follow	Details to follow	Details to follow	62.70	81.4
Jun-09	Sofia, ESC AGM of the Secretary Generals	527.92	178.00	Grand Hotel, Sofia	83.50	11.95
Aug-09	Copenhagen to Oslo to Dublin (Details of purpose of journey to follow)	479.87	169.37	Hotel Bristol, Oslo	56.90	13.68
Aug-09	Boston, Harvard, Womens Leadership Board	1,443.19	Details to follow	Charles Hotel Boston	58.90
Aug-09	Amsterdam International Summer School	157.02	Hotel paid for by Host organisation
Sep-09	Conference Liege re Europe Report	166.48	178.00	Ramada Plaza, Liege	92.70
Oct-09	Budapest /Sofia Conference — Details to follow	200.51	Details to follow	Details to follow	62.70
Mar-10	London, International Strategy Workshop at the Institute for Govt	193.55	441.11	Details to follow	87.88	7.49
Apr-10	Nottingham, Project Workshop for Hospital of the Future Project	83.69	265.09	Izaak Walton Hotel,
May-10	Speaking at conference in Cornell University	526.25	1,277.94	Fitzparticks, Manhattan
May-10	European Social Council Meeting Madrid	158.09	342.40	Hotel NH Nacional		51.19
Sep-10	Brussels European Social Council	654.98	257.00	Details to follow	61.40