Advertisement
Niall Carson/PA Wire
Visits

State visits to cost Ireland 'around €20m' - Taoiseach

Enda Kenny says the total cost has not been finalised, but the total costs of the Royal and Obama visits will be around €20m.

THE VISITS OF Queen Elizabeth and Barack Obama to Ireland last month will cost the State a total of around €20m, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has suggested.

Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, Kenny said that while the final costs had yet to be totally broken down, the two visits together were expected to cost about €20m.

Responding to questions from Joe Higgins, Kenny said that his own department would shoulder around €11,000 in costs for the Queen’s visit – mainly in catering for the various events – and around €600,000 on the visit of Barack Obama.

Most of the Department’s costs for Obama had been incurred through hosting the public address at College Green in Dublin, Kenny said, though the United States was expected to make a contribution towards that bill.

Defence minister Alan Shatter had previously said the Defence Forces’ bill for the visits had come in around €1.73m, but that no tallies could be offered as yet on the cost of any extra Garda work for the visits.

Gardaí endured “unnecessary hardships” during Obama and Queen visits >

Your Voice
Readers Comments
12
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.