Cowen’s office runs up €500k charges

www.independent.ie

Despite claiming to have driven down the cost of its foreign junkets by 31 per cent since Mr Cowen took office in May of last year, the Department of the Taoiseach still expects the taxpayer to sign a cheque for €500,000 to pay for first-class flights, five-star hotels, chauffeur-driven limousines and fine dining in 2009, according to records released to the Sunday Independent under the Freedom of Information Act.

And while the Taoiseach is promising to lead by example in the Government’s drive for austerity, with a commitment today to publish reports of his expenses on his department’s website, he would be well-advised to take a long, hard look at his own receipts from the past 18 months.

A review of Mr Cowen’s expenses reveals a plethora of questionable items.

Among the more curious claims made personally by the Taoiseach are:

• €371.60 for attendance by a doctor in Beijing in October 2008.

• €199 for a hotel room in the Conrad Hotel in Dublin on September 30 2008.

• €398 for two rooms at the Conrad Hotel in Dublin on November 11, 2008.

• Subsistence of €370.18 for a three-day trip to New York in July 2008.

• Subsistence of €213.59 for attendance at the European Council, Brussels in October 2008.

• €165.94 for a return flight from Dublin to Kerry on Ryanair in June 2009.

And Mr Cowen wasn’t alone when it came to splashing out with taxpayers’ money it appears.

Records released as part of this paper’s FOI request show how Minister of State Peter Power’s wife tasted the trappings of her husband’s newfound power when the couple attended a summit on Millennium Development Goals at the United Nations in New York in September 2008.

According to the files, Mrs Power enjoyed the personal use of a chauffeur-driven limousine in the Big Apple on three occasions during the trip. Mrs Power’s jaunts, which lasted a total of seven hours and 15 minutes, cost the Irish taxpayer $514.60 (€360).

Costs for Mr Power’s limousine use, meanwhile, came to a total of €5,493 the records show. Overall, the Irish delegation’s hire of cars for the two-day UN summit reached a staggering $23,842 (€16,630), while accommodation at the Fitzpatrick Hotel on Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue cost $39,079.94 (€27,257).

And quite apart from the free-spending abandon of our Taoiseach and his ministers are the costly errors and oversights for which the hapless taxpayer was forced to pick up the tab.

One such oversight came at the very start of Mr Cowen’s tenure in the Office of Taoiseach.

According to the files, a 100 per cent deposit of €4,184.48 paid for 16 hotel rooms at the EU Latin American Nation summit in the Peruvian capital, Lima, was lost in the midst of the transfer of power between Bertie Ahern and his successor in May of last year.

While officials queried on April 2 whether the new Taoiseach would attend the May 15 summit, confirmation that he would not did not come until May 6, one day before Mr Cowen was formally nominated as Mr Ahern’s successor in the Dail.

Elsewhere, a change of dates during Mr Cowen’s trip to China in October last year left the taxpayer picking up a €2,082.61 charge for the cancellation of six rooms at the Westin Hotel, Shanghai, on October 17 and 18.

While on the same trip, Mr Cowen appears to have fallen ill, judging by the records released to this newspaper by his department.

According to the files, Mr Cowen was attended by a doctor from the Bayley and Jackson Medical Centre at his hotel room, where he received what is described as “blocking injection therapy medication”.

The €371.60 bill for Mr Cowen’s treatment was queried by departmental officials before being noted as an official expense and charged to the taxpayer.

While few will quibble with the cost of treating the Taoiseach for illness in the course of his official duties, eyebrows will be raised by some of the other costs he has left to the State.

Take, for example, Mr Cowen’s use of hotel rooms at the Conrad Hotel on Dublin’s Earlsfort Terrace in September and November of last year.

With the Taoiseach entitled to the use of the Steward’s Lodge at Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park, which was only refurbished in 2008 at a cost of €600,000 to the taxpayer, questions will be asked as to why it was deemed appropriate to pay for hotel accommodation in Dublin city centre at all.

Other curious costs include Mr Cowen’s decision to claim subsistence of €370.18 and €213.59 respectively for official visits to New York and Brussels in July and October of last year.

With Mr Cowen then enjoying an annual salary of €272,000 and all the benefits of free travel, accommodation and meals in the course of his official duties, the payment of such subsistence — while allowed for — is bound to come in for questioning. Read more…

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