Hotels, flowers and fine dining: IDA racked up €50,000 bill for Leo Varadkar-led trade mission to America
The Industrial Development Agency (IDA) spent around €50,000 on a US trade mission in April last year which included bookings at a string of top hotels, business-class flights and fine dining bills.
An event at a glamorous restaurant in California catering for 22 people ended up costing more than US$7,500 (€7,120), with four bottles of $80 wine charged to the tab and a $145 per person set menu.
The travelling delegation — which was led by Leo Varadkar, then tánaiste — was booked into a series of high-end hotels, including the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle, the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, and the Stanford Park Hotel in Silicon Valley.
An official dinner at Selby’s Restaurant in Redwood City cost US$5,800, with a further $1,758 spent on flowers and room rental fees at the venue, according to records released under freedom of information law.
The dining bill included what were described as “20 IDA Menus” at a cost of $2,900, as well as three bottles of wine from Turnbull Wine Cellars costing a combined $198.Five bottles of Mount Riley Pinot Noir set the Irish taxpayer back $350, with a further $320 spent on four bottles of Averaen Chardonnay.
The bill included a 20pc service charge of $920 “in lieu of [a] gratuity” according to a copy of the receipt from the restaurant.
The IDA said it had spent €15,875 on transatlantic flights for the trip with $11,931 spent on hotel accommodation in several West Coast cities and just over $14,000 paid for transportation services for the six-strong delegation.
During the trip, Mr Varadkar presented Google with a special recognition award for their contribution to the Irish economy.
Transportation bills included rental of a sport utility vehicle at a cost of almost $130 an hour as well as minibus rental at the rate of $210 per hour.
There was also a $655 business breakfast bill from the Menlo Tavern at the Stanford Park Hotel where the Irish delegation were staying. Two “tavern breakfasts” cost $23 each, two dishes of French toast came to a combined $34, with eight medium coffees costing $6 each.
The costs were not confined entirely to the IDA with Enterprise Ireland paying out almost €26,000 for nine of their staff to work on the trade mission.
That included flight costs of €8,825, hotel bills of €4,351, meals costing €516, and taxi bills of €1,554. A bill of over €7,700 was also run up in event hosting costs, with US$7,963 spent at the Stanford Park Hotel. That included the cost of 18 lunch buffets costing $70 each, seven portions of to-go sandwiches priced at $35 each, and four servings of freshly brewed coffee and tea, each costing $80
Asked about the costs, a spokesperson for the IDA said: “IDA Ireland organised this trade/investment mission to the US West Coast [during April] in partnership with Enterprise Ireland.
“The mission was attended by Leo Varadkar, who was accompanied by [then] IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan and Enterprise Ireland CEO Leo Clancy.
“Meetings with CEOs and senior leaders of global IDA client companies employing tens of thousands of people in Ireland, companies who have repeatedly reinvested multiple millions in their Irish operations, took place on this mission.”
Reporting: The Irish Independent