Over €13,000 has been lost by Leinster House due to cancelled travel and accommodation bookings for TDs, Senators, and their staff, reports Breaking News.
These non-refundable expenses stemmed from dozens of flight tickets and hotel reservations made since the start of last year.
One instance involved €900 spent on a flight for a TD or Senator to attend the UN Conference of State Parties last year, reports Breaking News.
However, according to records from the Oireachtas, the individual did not make the trip.
Another case saw €884 spent on a round-trip flight to Geneva for the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s general assembly, reports Breaking News.
Despite the booking, the TD or Senator did not go, and the airline ticket could not be refunded.
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A further €717 was lost on a flight to Seattle and San Francisco for St Patrick’s Day events last year, reports Breaking News.
Among other losses were a €473 hotel reservation at the Courtyard Downtown Marriott in Toronto for a Legislative Assemblies Business Continuity Network meeting, and a €322 stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in New York.
The log of unrecoverable expenses shows that €13,211 was wasted since January 2024, with costs ranging from just €3 up to €900, reports Breaking News.
Of that amount, around €9,900 was spent on flights, €2,681 on hotels, and €577 on train journeys.
According to the Oireachtas, €7,579 of the losses were linked to travel by TDs and Senators, while €5,631 involved their staff, reports Breaking News.
In several instances, the full amount of a flight or hotel booking was forfeited, while in others, partial refunds were possible.
A source in Leinster House said: “There are pros and cons to having refundable travel. Plans can be changed but that option is usually more expensive. In many of these cases, the cancellations would have been made at very late notice due to illness or other circumstances outside the control of the person meant to travel,” reports Breaking News.
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