A SPORTS institute set up to look after elite athletes has spent more than €97,000 on hotels, air fares and overseas travel in the past two-and-a- half years.

The Irish Institute of Sport – which is chaired by the newly elected Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly – racked up a travel bill of more than €56,000 during last year's Olympics.

More than €15,000 was spent flying Kelly and two institute staff to Beijing, according to the figures, which were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

In one instance, hotel accommodation in Beijing for Kelly, a former president of the GAA, was not used but still cost the taxpayer €1,038 in a 'cancellation fee', the Sunday Tribune has learned.

In the course of two years, the institute also spent more than €4,100 on room hire for a total of six board meetings.

Three meetings in 2007 were held at the Castleknock Hotel and Country Club in Dublin at a combined cost of almost €3,000, according to the documents.

The institute also accrued considerable expense in hosting meetings and seminars around Ireland. Room hire and accommodation on a one-night stay at the Cork International Airport Hotel in June of last year cost €4,168, according to the figures. Another one-night stay at the luxury Crowne Plaza Hotel at Marlow in the UK for Seán Kelly and Rod McLoughlin set the taxpayer back €1,127.

Last November, an €8.76 movie charge in Beijing – incorrectly claimed as expenses – later had to be deducted by one institute official.

Flights to Beijing last year also proved incredibly expensive, with a return trip for chairman Kelly listed as having cost €4,625.

His colleague Phil Moore's flight was even pricier, coming in at €5,345, while two separate journeys for employees Gary Keegan and Phil Moore cost more than €2,500 each.

In 2007, the institute also built up considerable expenses on overseas travel, with the cost of hotels and flights coming in at €38,560.

Kelly stayed at the Hilton Hotel in Chicago for five nights during the boxing world championships in September 2007 at a cost of €1,453. The return flight for that trip to the US cost €3,810, the figures show.

Two months earlier, Kelly had travelled to Osaka in Japan where the hotel bill for he and his colleague, Finbarr Kirwan, came to €1,781.

The two men stayed at the luxury Swissotel Nankai in the heart of the city with a flight to Osaka for Kelly listed as having cost €1,586.