A MASSIVE €13.8m in taxpayers' money was spent last year by political parties on public relations, media training, consultants, party bashes and staff costs.

A breakdown of expenditure of the party funding shows the main political parties have used the funds to pay for new cars, air travel, taxis, flowers and official entertainment.

Fine Gael used the money to spend €90,000 on "media training" to ensure their politicians perform well in the public eye, and in 2008 purchased a new car.

Fianna Fáil was less specific in its returns but did list a €20,935 refund that was paid back two years ago after the party was charged too much for "banking and finance expenses".

Fianna Fáil received by far the biggest contribution from the state and spent €5.6m last year in money received through the "party leader's allowance" and "exchequer funding".

The government party is relatively coy about how the money is spent and in official declarations list their expenditure under very general headings. From the party leader's allowance, Fianna Fáil spent €114,088 on travel, meetings and subsistence with just €146 spent on entertainment.

Another €110,630 was spent on "research", €288,690 on "professional fees" and €16,448 went on newspapers.

By far the biggest expenditure – a sum of €1.47m – went on "personnel costs" with photography costing €100 and a telephone bill of €47,338.

Using their exchequer funding, Fianna Fáil paid out another €814,547 for staff costs with a further €224,516 forked out for legal and professional fees.

Depreciation was listed as having cost €18,874, according to documents filed with the Standards in Public Office Commission.

Another €50,386 was spent on "travel and subsistence" with €534,470 spent on "contractors, transport and compliance".

One area where Fianna Fáil was able to give the taxpayer some relief was in the area of banking and finance expenses. In their accounts for 2008, the party lists a refund of €20,935 for "banking and finance expenses".

Fine Gael's returns are far more detailed showing a party willing to spend on improving its public image: it spent almost €4.7m last year in taxpayer's money.

In the category of research and training, "media training" is listed as having cost €90,000, at least some of which is believed to have been paid to Terry Prone's Communications Clinic.

Another €337,129 was spent on consultancy services, listed as having been paid out for advice on human resources, media, information technology, public relations and management.

In the leader's office account, a total of €54,039 was spent on air travel and taxis with another €519,942 paid out in salaries and benefits.

Fine Gael also listed €145,787 as having been spent on their ardfheis and other conferences, which included hotel accommodation, audiovisual equipment and hire of venues.

Another €215,090 was spent by the party on "research and public sampling", carrying out local polls, some of which related to by-elections last year.

Newspapers, magazines and flowers are listed as having cost €1,926 with a further €17,580 spent on travel and subsistence, according to the documents filed.

Fine Gael actually outspent Fianna Fáil from the party leader's allowance fund last year with expenditure totalling €3.1m. The remaining expenditure – totalling €1.57m – came directly from exchequer funding.

A filing for the previous year also reveals that the party made an investment of €19,973 to purchase a "motor vehicle".

The Green Party was subsidised by the taxpayer to the tune of €726,000, according to records it filed with the Standards in Public Office Commission.

Conventions and conferences cost €98,492 with "communications, printing and literature" listed as having cost €83,618.

Media services and monitoring of newspapers resulted in a bill for €24,782 while advertising in the national phone directory came at a price of €7,605.

The remaining expenditure went on general office administration and utility bills with more than €23,000 spent on "travel and accommodation".

Focus groups cost €14,337, another €3,706 was spent on research, while separate filings for 2008 show that €7,502 was spent on a "party logo change".

A final listing for the Progressive Democrats shows that €75,572 was spent from the party leader's allowance as the party wound down.

A sum of €49,250 was paid to the party itself for "research, administration and secretarial support" as the process to dissolve the PDs continued.

Travel and accommodation costs of Ciaran Cannon (€4,508) and Noel Grealish (€1,327) were also paid out last year.

The remaining expenditure went on €1,920 worth of catering, €12,976 worth of meetings and meals, €799 on gifts and €590 on travel. In 2008, a separate filing by the party reveals that €35,000 was paid in what was termed as a "termination payment", presumably to a departing staff member.

The Labour Party spent €1.9m in 2009 from both exchequer funding and the party leader's allowance, according to their returns.

From the party leader's fund, public relations and printing came to €102,325, travel and subsistence cost more than €120,000 and the loosely termed "international affairs" cost almost €18,000.

The party's national conference came with a price tag of €52,385, the records show.

Sinn Féin spent around €750,000 in exchequer funding with the vast majority of the money simply categorised as "wages and salaries".

Expenses for the party's ardfheis came to €42,553 with another €16,911 spent on "meetings and conferences".