AT LEAST five personal chefs are employed by the Department of Foreign Affairs to cook dinners for the country's most high-profile ambassadors.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said that at least €235,000 was spent last year on paying the five cooks at various embassies overseas.

The provision of personal chefs forms part of an expensive set of arrangements for keeping Ireland's most senior diplomats in the height of style.

A personal chef is made available at the consulate's office in New York where the head of mission also commands a €75,000-a-year allowance for entertainment.

School fees for three children, belonging to senior diplomats at the embassy, came to €113,000 – or €37,666 per student – during 2009.

A private cook is also employed at the embassy in London, where the yearly entertainment allowance for the ambassador stands at €60,000.

Rental allowances are provided to senior diplomats there, with 17 officials sharing €879,000 for leasing property last year, the equivalent of €4,300 per month each. Some of the most senior staff there are understood to have rent allowances of up to €8,000 per month.

Chefs are also provided at Washington DC, Paris and Ottawa, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. It is unclear if similar arrangements apply elsewhere.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said: "Officers at diplomatic missions abroad are required to carry out certain representational duties in pursuit of the department's strategies and mission business plans.

"Official entertainment forms a significant part of the workload of all missions and is an important avenue towards achievement of mission and departmental objectives.

"To facilitate this work, a small number of ambassadors at large high-profile embassies have sanction from the department to employ a full-time chef.

"This includes the official residences in London, Ottawa, Paris, New York and Washington. These locally employed chefs provide a high-quality service catering for large numbers of guests at official functions on a regular basis."

The department said the arrangement could save money at times as it avoided the necessity of using hotels and other private meeting rooms. Instead, official entertainment could take place at the ambassadorial residence with food cooked on the premises by the personal chef.