When does an official St Patrick's Day visit to the US at the taxpayer's expense not involve actually being in that country on the day itself? When you're tourism minister Martin Cullen, of course.

An examination of the itinerary for Cullen's €10,000-plus visit to Houston, Texas, earlier this month reveals that the minister left the US a day before St Patrick's Day.

Cullen did attend the Irish Society's St Patrick's celebration dinner, as the guest of honour, in Houston on Friday 13 March. He also attended, participated in and reviewed the city's St Patrick's day parade the following day.

However, Cullen, who arrived at Houston on Thursday 12 March, departed from Miami at 1.30pm on Monday 16 March – the day before St Patrick's Day.

Elsewhere during the visit, Cullen had been due to attend the unveiling of a model of Blarney Castle on 13 March. However, this was cancelled at the last minute due to weather conditions.

Later that day, Cullen was interviewed and filmed for a TV special, while he was also guest of honour at a business meeting and dinner with representatives of Continental Airlines and Houston's business community the following evening.

Cullen then flew to Miami last Sunday, where he attended an international cruise liner convention the following day, before heading for Miami airport at lunchtime.

A spokeswoman for the department said Cullen was not in Houston on St Patrick's Day because the official St Patrick's Day festivities were scheduled by the organisers over Friday 13 and Saturday 14 March.

"The minister represented the government at these events," she added.

The total budget for the visit, on which Cullen was accompanied by a private secretary from his department, was €10,500.

This included €7,850 spent on a mixture of business class and economy flights, and a further allowance of around €1,600 for accommodation under civil service overnight subsistence rates.