THE DEPARTMENT OF Foreign Affairs has ended “the practice of purchasing expensive wines,” the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs said today.

Eamon Gilmore said his Department “maintained a stock of wine for use in relation to State and official hospitality”, and that -
following a review of purchasing policy – he had given an instruction in March 2012 “that any wine bought should be reasonably priced, and that every care should be taken to ensure that the cost of State and official hospitality would be kept to a minimum”.

“This is now Department policy and is reflected in the significantly reduced amount spent on wine in 2012,” he said.

Gilmore added that “the majority of the higher value wines stored by the Department were bought prior to 2010, when the previous Government was in office”.

Gilmore’s comments were in response to an article in the Irish Daily Mail today regarding the Department’s purchase of wines.

According to figures supplied by the Tánaiste, the cost of restocking the Department’s wine cellar was €7,834.66 last year, compared to €29,541.99 in 2005.