MICHAEL D HIGGINS returned €2.6 million to the State since the beginning of his fourteen-year presidency.

In recent days, the former president returned €384,467 to the Exchequer in unspent funds from the allowance allocated to him for his second term.

He returned €238,443 of the 1938 Allowance when his first term ended.

A further €2 million was given by Higgins as a gift to the State.

This included €1,310,491 in Oireachtas and ministerial pensions and €689,474 in pay over the last 14 years.

Combined with the returns of the 1938 Allowance, these figures represent a return of €2,622,875 to the State over the course of his two terms.

The figures were released as part of a new document called 2025 – A Year In Review, which details Higgins’s work in his final year as president.

The 1938 Allowance, which is provided for under the Presidential Establishment Act 1938 and has been available to every Irish president over the last 88 years, is used to meet additional costs not covered by other structures.

A spokesperson for Higgins said the money “assists in enabling each president to define his or her presidency”.

Over the course of his two terms, Higgins used the allowance to “support hospitality” for approximately 20,000 people that visited Áras an Uachtaráin each year, not including years impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The money also went towards state dinners for visiting world leaders, and other events hosted by the president and his wife Sabina at the Áras, the spokesperson said.