The Department of Health spent $520 hiring vans to collect the former tánaiste Mary Harney's luggage during a trip to Washington in February 2008.

On 6 Febuary a luggage van was hired from 9.45am-2.35pm at a cost of $325, newly-released Freedom of Information figures have revealed.

The van was again used to carry Harney's bags the following day, this time at a cost of $195. Car hire for the two-day trip amounted to $4,186 with the cars being organised by the Irish Embassy in Washington and the bill paid for by the Department of Health.

Harney also charged a $1,300 meal to the taxpayer during a trip to Chicago in 2006. Harney paid for the meal on her private credit card after the departmental Visa card was rejected at a four-star restaurant.

Harney subsequently made a claim for €994 to cover the cost of the meal for eight people at the upmarket Spiaggia restaurant, which included two bottles of $75 wine.

The minister also claimed a $90 round of drinks on a separate trip to America in 2008, details of her expenditure have revealed. Harney purchased three Bombay Sapphires, three bottles of beer and two glasses of wine. The purchase was made on an official visit to the US where Harney also found time to attend the Super Bowl.

On that visit, her hotel at the Hyatt in Phoenix cost $561 per night while limousine hire cost $602. The delegation then moved on to Texas where transport costs came to €1,819.

The details are contained in a Freedom of Information response from the Department of Health, which came four weeks later than it should have. More than 700 pages of documents have been released, which describe how Harney, her husband Brian Geoghegan and civil servants ran up bills of nearly €65,000 in hotels, limousine hire and other costs over a three-year period.

During that time, Harney made use of the government jet on a dozen occasions with the total estimated bill for that part of her travel in the region of €600,000.