IDA Ireland's US offices cost it more than €4.1m to run between January 2007 and January 2008, according to newly released documents in the United States. The various costs are listed on the Foreign Lobbyist Influence Tracker, a joint project of non-profit journalism organisation ProPublica and the Sunlight Foundation.

A spokesman for the IDA said the costs were not related to lobbying but instead were related to the costs of running its offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and the two in California. "We have to declare any transfer we make there," the spokesman said.

The same website also shows that Tourism Ireland paid about $9.5m in the first six months of this year. A spokeswoman for the organisation said it "does not engage in any lobbying in the United States or in any other market in which we operate.

"We are obliged to report on our marketing and operating expenditure in the US to the relevant authorities, under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The figures mentioned on the website relate to that expenditure."

Invest Northern Ireland, meanwhile, spent almost $20,000 a month last year on client services to lobbyist Daniel J Edelman Inc, which owns Edelman Public Relations.