FORMER minister John O'Donoghue had no official business on trips to the finals of the European Championship and UEFA Champions League, in Lisbon and Manchester, it has emerged.

O'Donoghue spent four nights in Lisbon, after arriving there on flights which cost more than €2,000 each.

On an official itinerary, not a single item of business apart from the football match is listed, with the only other organised event a mass at the Convent of Irish Dominicans on the Sunday. It is not known who paid the hotel bill, but car hire on the five-day trip cost more than €1,150.

O'Donoghue also went to Old Trafford for the match between AC Milan and Juventus in 2003 at the invitation of Uefa but had no other business there, according to his itinerary. Details of the trip show that a car was sent to Manchester airport to take him to the match at a cost of €904. He stayed overnight at the €293-a-night Malmaison Hotel in the city before returning to Dublin the next day.

In his resignation speech last month, O'Donoghue said all his travel, accommodation and related costs had been "incurred on or in connection on or in connection with official duties".

The details are in previously unreleased documents which the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism initially refused to make public. The documents were sought by the Sunday Tribune last summer at the height of controversy over O'Donoghue's overseas travel.

During a lengthy trip to Australia and New Zealand in 2005, the minister and his wife enjoyed several leisure days, seeing the sights in the two countries. On 30 October, O'Donoghue and his wife enjoyed an all-day "sight-seeing tour of coastline [in Australia] to include lunch stop".

On 3 November, the minister and his party took a tour to Cambridge Stud combining "a relaxing tourist drive through rural scenery with opportunity to visit one of Australasia's leading stud farms".

The following day, he went on a "ferry trip to and tour of Waiheke Island, a lovely New Zealand experience in Auckland's Waitemata Harbour".

En route back to Ireland, they stopped in Kuala Lumpur where they had another day free "for sightseeing" and "shopping" in the city's centre.

On one trip to Cannes and Nice in 2003, the minister and his wife Kate-Ann were given a "private visit" to the island of St Marguerite where they viewed the Musée de la Mer. From there, they were taken by car to Nice, making sure to take the "coast route via Antibes, Juan les Pins" for sightseeing.

The documents provide further evidence of just how often O'Donoghue's official engagements happened to coincide with race meetings.

Just months after taking office, the minister went to New York and Chicago for a tourism-promotion drive. On arrival, he and his party departed their "hotel for [the] Breeders Cup at Arlington Park Racetrack".

Trips to both Cheltenham and Aintree became annual events to coincide with the racing festival and the Grand National. Each year, the itinerary was the same: arrival at the racing festival on Monday and the following day a "dinner courtesy of JP McManus".

That June, O'Dono­ghue flew to California, making a stop in New York for 4 July celebrations and racing at Belmont. In September, he went to Florence for an EU cultural meeting with his wife. From there he flew to Paris for two days' racing at Long­champs.

In March 2004, the minister went on his annual pilgrimage to Cheltenham. This time, he put in another day's racing at Stratford-on-Avon before another three days on the track at Cheltenham.

The following year, he went one better and spent five consecutive days at racing in Stratford and Cheltenham.