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The Central Bank spent over €350,000 playing host to a delegation of senior European bankers in May this year, according to itemised spending released under the Freedom of Information Act.
The figures provided to co-director of ‘Right to Know’, Ken Foxe following an FOI request revealed that the bill for the five-star venue, Mount Juliet Estate, made up over half of the total spend at €193,000.
Nearly €118,000 was spent on official transport, which was made up of bills for the VIP platinum service from Dublin Airport and chauffeur services from a company called Optimum.
The four-day meeting was one of the two overseas governing council meetings the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank (ECB) holds every year, and was the first held in Ireland since 2007.
The group of 26 governing council members availed of their host country’s culture extensively, with a bill of over €730 for a private tour of the Book of Kells, €350 for a tour of Kilkenny city.
€1,500 was spent on a ‘hurling demo’, while there was a bill for €11,602.50 for the famous Kytelers Inn in Co. Kilkenny.
Multiple copies of Best-Loved Yeats and Irish author Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones from Dublin bookshop Hodges Figgis came to almost €530.
A receipt for a meal at Pichet Restaurant in Dublin City shows a total of just over €1,000, while food and beverages costs at Mount Juliet Estate came to around €47,000.
Stationary costs ran into the thousands, with €5,700 spent on green A4 folio notebooks and embossed bookmarks from a handmade leather company in Dingle, Co. Kerry and €688 for lapel pins and their display boxes.
A spokesman for the Central Bank told Foxe that the meeting “provided an important opportunity for the Central Bank to build on the strong collaboration with the ECB Governing Council and European partners”.
“The last time the Central Bank hosted the ECB Governing Council was June 2007, so it was timely to convene again in Ireland,” the spokesman said.
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