Hail Mary, full of disgrace

The reporter who broke the John O'Donoghue expenses story, Public Affairs Correspondent Ken Foxe, unveils a new series of shocking costs from leading politicians

Health minister Mary Harney: was abroad on 15 occasions between 2006 and 2008 and used the government on almost every ocassion costing the taxpayer €735,000

HEALTH minister Mary Harney and her husband Brian Geoghegan ran up a bill of nearly €65,000 in hotels, limousine hire and accommodation in the space of just three years.

That figure does not include the massive bill for the government jet, which Harney used on almost every occasion she travelled abroad and which cost the taxpayer more than €735,000.

Harney was abroad on 15 occasions between 2006 and 2008 on official business with her department, according to details released under the Freedom of Information Act.

In February of 2008, the health minister travelled to the USA on an official visit with her husband and six civil servants and advisers, where she controversially attended the Super Bowl.

Car hire on the trip cost €10,208 while accommodation for the minister and her husband cost €2,285. Details of where they stayed have not been provided in a heavily redacted and delayed release by the Department of Health.

Other claims on the trip include €541 in restaurant bills and subsistence claims for €772. The total bill for the government jet has been estimated at €163,600 and there is no mention of the trip to the Super Bowl in Arizona in an official itinerary of the trip.

The Sunday on which she went to the game is simply listed as a "private day" and Harney said she had been an invited guest of Science Foundation Arizona president William Harris, who had previously been the head of Science Foundation Ireland.

In June of 2008, Harney – with her husband – and a small coterie of advisers went to Tallinn for a World Health Organisation ministerial conference.

They again travelled by government jet and accommodation costs for the minister are listed as €740, with a further €126 paid out in subsistence payments.

In 2006, Harney and her husband travelled to the United States on three separate occasions to visit hospitals and other healthcare services.

In February 2006, they flew to Canada by government jet where they ran up a car hire bill of €6,889, accommodation costs of €1,542 and claimed back subsistence of €486. They were accompanied by a number of civil servants and advisors and a reporting crew from RTÉ.

According to a list of official events, the trip, which involved stops in Toronto and Vancouver, was for an "analysis of cancer control governance models".

In May of that year, Harney and Geoghegan again jetted off to America on the €7,100-an-hour Gulfstream IV, where their car hire bill came to a massive €14,351.

Accommodation costs for the trip for six people do not appear to have been provided in full by the department and are listed as having cost €745 with a further €835 claimed in subsistence by Harney.

This time, the trip again related to cancer services including a conference in Philadelphia and a hospital visit in the US capital Washington DC.

By October, the couple was off again, this time to Chicago to visit a children's memorial hospital there. Car hire on that trip cost €2,979 with accommodation costs coming in at €1,400.

This time, Harney and her husband travelled by commercial airline and a club travel bill of €3,138 – presumably for flights – is listed by the Department of Health.

For St Patrick's Day, Harney and her husband represented Ireland three years in a row.

In 2008, they travelled to Prague by government jet and hired cars costing €1,136. Accommodation costs on the trip were €921, restaurant bills €263 and subsistence paid out came to €618. Other costs include €115 in miscellaneous expenditure but it is impossible to determine what this entailed as the Department of Health have provided as little detail as possible.

In 2007, Harney, her husband and three advisers went to Stockholm in Sweden for St Patrick's Day by government jet and stayed for five days. The only cost listed for the trip is €922 and who paid for hotel costs, dinners and car hire is a mystery – again, no detail has been provided.

The previous year, the couple had travelled to Bahrain for St Patrick's Day festivities and got there by commercial airliner with their flights costing €3,732 in total. Once again, no details of who paid for their accommodation or car hire are provided and the only claim from the trip is one of €1,351 for subsistence.

Harney also travelled abroad on seven different occasions for EU business, with her husband Brian Geoghegan accompanying her on two of those trips.

Government jet

On all but one of these journeys, she travelled by government jet, although flight costs for a trip to Milan at which she was a speaker at "Observatory on Europe" have not been provided.

Accommodation costs have been provided in only two instances and the largest bills tended to be for car hire, €2,096 in Luxembourg and €1,591 in Brussels.

Some details of expenditure on a departmental credit card have also been provided, which show Harney once spent €873.20 on an official dinner during her St Patrick's Day trip to Scandinavia in 2007.

Other transactions on that credit card include a €290 payment for a room at Hotel le Royal in Luxembourg and €456 for a dinner with the delegation while there.

According to documents made available by the Department of Health, Harney also travelled abroad 10 times during 2004 and 2005. However, many of those trips were short hops to the UK or Brussels.

Harney may also have travelled abroad on other occasions courtesy of semi-state bodies and other agencies.

She was one of six government ministers who travelled to Florida with Fás as part of the now-scrapped Science Challenge Programme.

On that trip in July 2004, while she was minister for enterprise, Harney travelled with her husband and enjoyed five-star accommodation and a single meal which cost nearly $1,000.

Where the minister travelled

* Non-EU
June 26 2008: Tallinn, government jet.
Feb 1 2008: Arizona & Houston, government jet.
October 27 2006: Chicago, commercial flights.
May 5 2006: Washington DC & Philadelphia, government jet.
Feb 2 2006: Vancouver & Toronto, government jet.

* St Patrick's Day
March 2008: Prague, government jet.
March 2007: Stockholm, government jet.
March 2006: Bahrain, commercial flight.

* EU
September 8 2008: Paris, government jet.
June 9 2008: Luxembourg, government jet
April 17 2008: Slovenia, government jet.
February 8 2007: Milan, commercial flights.
November 29 2006: Brussels, government jet.
April 25 2006: Vienna, government jet.
February 23 2006: Vienna, government jet.
Gulfstream IV, used primarily for non-EU travel: €7,100 an hour.
Learjet, used primarily for EU travel: €2,100 per hour.

Total estimated cost: €735,000

October 11, 2009

Comments

#1 John O Brien, Glasnevin commented, on October 11, 2009 at 6:47 p.m.:

O.K. John O donoghue and his Political allies try to justify the unjustifable. A terrific excuse - he was Minister of tourism and it was absolutely necessary to travel abroad to represent our Country.
However he did do wrong and admitted as much when he apologised live on air at the Listowel Races. If he did no wrong why did he apologise?

I see Harris and P O Se were defending him on the Irish Independent today. Are we missing something here? Oh yes, one has been appointed as a member of the Seanad for defending poor old Bertie on the Late Late and P O Sé has a cushy number on the board of Fáilte Ireland.
Wouldn't the extravagant amounts spent by Mary Harney be best spent on health services? Maybe ripping off the Taxpayers has become a contagious disease and she needed to carry out some investigations abroad in order to improve !

#2 Robert Browne commented, on October 11, 2009 at 7:10 p.m.:

These are the people who accused Charles Haughey of corruption? How bizarre is that? All along, they could have given the old man lessons in the dark arts of Machiavelli.

Where is the great PD party which spouted so much idealistic clap trap gone? Swallowed up by FF I would say, and steam rolled over by the great gravy train of Irish gombeenism.

Sure, but have we not done some service for ourselves, they will ask us, as they draw their pensions paid for by people not even yet born.

Harney, Bertie we all know the list. They have borrowed from our future every single week and they continue to borrow to live high on the hog of waste. Give us an election, not more sheafs of promises being waved in the air "Peace in our time with FF" John Gormley style.

#3 Tony commented, on October 11, 2009 at 9:05 p.m.:

Not sure about the story but as far as I remember - Talinn is in Estonia and a member of the EU.

#4 Tony commented, on October 11, 2009 at 11:54 p.m.:

Whats all the fuss about !

These politicians are working for a country thats turning over circa 60billion euros per year !

These expenses are not crazy !

#5 g.mc arder commented, on October 11, 2009 at 11:56 p.m.:

1 Tony commented, on October 11, 2009 at 9:05 p.m.:

Not sure about the story but as far as I remember - Talinn is in Estonia and a member of the EU.

Oh! You don't say...well even if it was up the street...it would be a journey too far.
Now I say to her, "Get on her "Bike"!

#6 DON MAC NAMARA commented, on October 12, 2009 at 12:19 a.m.:

EVERY PENNY WOULD BE WORTH IT ..THE WHOLE 700K +
..IF ONLY THEY TOOK HER ONE WAY .. AND WE COULD STOP HER COMING BACK.

#7 Mick commented, on October 12, 2009 at 5:29 a.m.:

It is an affront to every citizen that she has the cheek to try and withhold information about how she spent our money. What earthly justification could she possibly come up with for using a government jet when there are countless commercial jets scheduled for the places she went. How can she be our health minister when the voters totally rejected her party and their Thatcherite brand of Reaganomics and Bush worship?

#8 Rory commented, on October 12, 2009 at 11:16 a.m.:

It beggars belief that at a time we are being softened up by this Government to accept the notion that Unemployment Benefit/Assistance is too high, Dempsey spends 6.5 years of this allowance on a St. Patrick's Day trip.

#9 billy noone commented, on October 12, 2009 at 1:51 p.m.:

Isn't it irony that the AIG logo is at the top of the page. These were go-go years and money has to be spent to invent. Get off your high horse Foxe and get back to work, making things better. Its easy to blown out a candle, very hard to make fire. The Kid

#10 g.mc arder commented, on October 12, 2009 at 3:20 p.m.:

Hail Mary, full of disgrace, Oh Brian is with thee, messing about with Nama & messing about with the whole country. Mad Mary, Progressive Democrat, resign for the good, of this great country & it's crucified inhabitants, Amen!

#11 John o Brien commented, on October 12, 2009 at 9:53 p.m.:

Should Mary be asked to step down. Her expenses are higher than the J.O. Donoghues. Maybe it is Mary who is sick and the system has been contaminated by her.

#12 Little Al commented, on October 14, 2009 at 10:28 p.m.:

Isn't the BIG problem that we are a Country of just over 4 Million trying to act as if we were a World Power? And don't our politicians feel this way? So that they have to be REAL BIG GUYS on the International stage - when in reality they are backwoods clod-hopping hicks? So they get out there and throw money around like drunken sailors to impress the neighbours (USA, UK, France, Germany, etc) And all this history about going out to build the world, etc., etc., etc., doesn't cut any ice any more...

#13 Jaker commented, on October 16, 2009 at 4:22 a.m.:

I see she's praying in the picture. Well, she & the rest of them better get down on their knees & pray...for their day of needing a miracle is getting closer by the day!

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