Release: €65 million in Department of Foreign Affairs spending data

[If you support our work, we recommend €50/year]

This is a datadump of all spending by the Department of Foreign Affairs across a wide range of categories for 2015.

Included is the €46,000-a-month spent on renting a residence for the Ambassador in Tokyo, as well as the €5,400-a-month for a home for our most senior diplomat in the Vatican. Also in there is the €165,000 for an armoured car for our man in Ramallah, and €60,000 for a non-armoured Mercedes Benz for the Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.

It includes €250,000 for furniture removal, and just over €220,000 on business class flights out of a €2million+ bill for airfares. About €180,000 was spent on hotels, with the biggest bill of €5,752 charged to the protocol division by the five-star Glenlo Abbey in Galway for hosting the German President.

Another large cost was “maintenance”, mostly to houses and embassies rented by the department. One contract was just over €210,000. Cars cost more than €750,000, with €69,000 spent in Ethiopia, €64,000 in Mozambique and €37,000 in Uganda — countries in which Irish Aid, the state’s overseas aid agency, is active.

A bill of €475,000 was run up on official entertainment, while a chauffeuring company was paid more than €50,000. Dublin Airport Authority was paid €16,400 for VIP lounges and other services.

Across the network of embassies and consulates, the bill for cable and satellite television came to €72,000 with the highest at Ireland’s UN office and consulates in New York. Cleaning bills for the diplomatic buildings exceeded €1m. The department also paid €186,654 in “settlement costs” to former local staff at the Irish embassy in Lesotho, following its closure in 2014.

Here is the raw data:

Download raw data here.

Continue reading “Release: €65 million in Department of Foreign Affairs spending data”

Release: €2.6bn of State spending

How does the State spend money, and who gets it?

It’s a question this blog has been concerned with since it was founded in 2009. Today we’re publishing some new data that helps answer this question – in what we believe to be the largest database by € amount ever published containing line item State spending.

Below is €2,597,722,577 of State expenditure from 2013, obtained from 68 public bodies via the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. It shows the total for each supplier to those 68 public bodies. (Note, there are duplicates where one supplier had a relationship with more than one public body). The data shows the top 5,000 suppliers by amount to those 68 public bodies.

We tried hard to obtain the full SQL database in the possession of the Department, but they resisted us all the way to the Information Commissioner, who found against us last year. They wouldn’t even release a breakdown per public body because they said it would be too complex (and onerous) (anyone who knows SQL knows that can’t be true).

We believe there to be no barrier to the Department publishing the entire dataset, which they’ve cleaned and annotated.

Download here.

Continue reading “Release: €2.6bn of State spending”

Longford County Council operational expenditure (other) 2011

This is all operational expenditure (Other) by the council in 2011.

Ap/Ar ID(T) EURO
IRISH PUBLIC BODIES MUTUAL INS LTD 1,850,934.19
LONGFORD LETTING & PROPERYTY MANAGEMENT LTD 76,955.00
MARSH IRELAND LTD (GALWAY) 74,013.58
JACKIE WHITE 39,279.00
CORNMILL MANAGEMENT COMPANY LTD 39,168.00
IGOE HOMES 36,175.00
CREEGAN MCCABE 26,300.00
PAUL O BYRNE 23,400.00
CHAZEY PROPERTIES 22,565.00
FINTAN BRENNAN 20,400.00
BRIAN KANE 19,465.00
JOSEPH DOYLE 18,733.00
FRANK & MARY GREENE 18,000.00
JOHN COSTELLO 18,000.00
O MAHONYS 17,532.84
Personal Information 17,000.00
WILLIE MORAN 16,275.00
JOHN KILCOMMINS 13,281.00
DECLAN & VERONICA GAHAN 13,200.00
PATRICK CRAWFORD 13,200.00
TOM COMERFORD 13,200.00
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL SERVICES LTD 12,995.60
PROPERTY MATTERS 12,300.00
BRENDAN KEARNEY 11,880.00
JAMES BRESLIN 11,640.00
PETER LYNCH 11,500.00
LPJ CONTRACTORS 11,400.00
BRIAN CONNAUGHTON 10,650.00
DENIS SMYTH 10,500.00
GRAFTON COURT BOOKS 9,697.16
JOHN MCKEON 9,602.00
TERRY GORRY 9,600.00
TRACEY HANNIFIN 9,600.00
MATTHEW KELLY 9,211.00
LEO MCCABE 9,000.00
MATTIE MC GIVNEY & JOHN SHERIDAN 9,000.00
VINCENT WELDON 9,000.00
DECLAN KIERNAN 8,700.00
JOSEPH DELANEY 8,700.00
JOHN HUGHES 8,666.00
DAVID O DONNELL & MICK SPILLANE 8,648.00
BODALE DEVELOPMENTS 8,400.00
DEREK SHERIDAN 8,400.00
LORNA HEALY 8,400.00
JOHN SOUHAN 8,100.00
MICHAEL MC GUINNESS 7,920.00
ANGELA CARR 7,800.00
ANNE DONLON 7,800.00
DAVE DELANEY 7,800.00
DAVE DOHERTY 7,800.00
ENDA MURTAGH 7,800.00
MARJORIE CARNEY 7,800.00
MARK CADAM 7,800.00
MATTHEW MULLEN 7,800.00
MICHAEL DENNANY 7,800.00
MICHAEL FORKAN 7,800.00
NOEL CASSIDY 7,800.00
NOELLA O REILLY 7,800.00
Personal Information 7,800.00
SEAMUS HORAN 7,800.00
SEAN CONEFREY 7,800.00
FRANCIS MCNERNEY 7,560.00
ORAZIO FORTE 7,560.00
THE BOOK NEST 7,509.77
MARTINA & ANDREW WALSH 7,440.00
THOMAS FITZGERALD 7,440.00
CATHAL GILTRAPP 7,300.00
ANN & PAT O´BRIEN 7,200.00
AUSTIN TRAPPE 7,200.00
CATHERINE GALLIGAN 7,200.00
COLIN MCGUINNESS 7,200.00
GEMMA LARKIN 7,200.00
GERARD HEARTY 7,200.00
GERARD MACKLE 7,200.00
JOAN KELLY (NEE MARTIN) 7,200.00
JOHN FINN 7,200.00
JOHN MC CORMACK 7,200.00
JOHN MC KIERNAN 7,200.00
JOHN QUINN 7,200.00
KATHTRINA FURLONG 7,200.00
MARTIN REILLY 7,200.00
MICHAEL & BARBARA O MALLEY 7,200.00
MICHAEL KEARNEY 7,200.00
MICHAEL LARKIN 7,200.00
PAT FAUGHNAN 7,200.00
PATRICIA MULLIGAN 7,200.00
Personal Information 7,200.00
PETER BOOTH 7,200.00
PHILIP GEOFFREY HARVEY 7,200.00
ROSE MOCKLER 7,200.00
SUSAN REYNOLDS 7,200.00
VINCENT FLYNN 7,200.00
TERRACOTTA CONSTRUCTION LIMITED 7,150.00
TREVOR CARTER 6,960.00
LIAM BOLGER 6,840.00
RENATO PIZZI 6,840.00
GERARD SMYTH 6,744.00
JOHN & ELAINE NALLY 6,717.00
SEAN CASSIDY 6,670.00
DAVID MULLIGAN 6,600.00
DEREK MURPHY 6,600.00
EDEL STARR 6,600.00
ENDA CLAFFEY 6,600.00
ENDA FLYNN 6,600.00
EUGENE MCCORMACK 6,600.00
GEORGE BELTON 6,600.00
GERRY KENNEDY 6,600.00
JAMES & ANN SHAUGHNESSY 6,600.00
JAMES & MARY HALLIGAN 6,600.00
JAMES MADDEN 6,600.00
JAMES MURTAGH 6,600.00
JESSICA GOLDERICK 6,600.00
JOHN CORCORAN/DES MC GUIRE 6,600.00
JOHN KEEGAN 6,600.00
JOHN MAGEE 6,600.00
JOHN MC GOWAN 6,600.00
JOHN WHITE 6,600.00
JOSEPH LEWIS 6,600.00
JOSEPHINE NYAZIKA 6,600.00
KIRSTEN MULLINS 6,600.00
KPLG PROPERTY PARTNERS 6,600.00
MAREL DEVELOPMENTS LTD 6,600.00
MARK CUNNINGHAM CONSULTING ENGINEERING 6,600.00
MARTHA ROSNEY & UNA ROSNEY 6,600.00
MAUREEN O KEEFFE 6,600.00
MICHAEL & BERNIE MOLLAGHAN 6,600.00
MICHAEL & LINDA WALLACE 6,600.00
NOREEN MCKENZIE 6,600.00
PAT DURNING 6,600.00
PATRICK MC DONAGH 6,600.00
PATRICK MOLLAGHAN 6,600.00
Personal Information 6,600.00
PETER DEEGAN 6,600.00
RICHARD TREHY 6,600.00
ROBERT O´LEARY 6,600.00
THOMAS MCCORMACK 6,600.00
MARY BHAWNANI 6,480.00
BERNARD MC DONNELL 6,406.00
INTERLEAF TECHNOLOGY LTD 6,391.70
ANN MARIE COLLINS 6,300.00
ENDA CASSIDY 6,300.00
JEAN BIRD 6,300.00
MICHELLE MULLIGAN 6,240.00
SEAN BRADY 6,210.00
EAMONN & CARMEL TYNAN 6,192.00
PHILIP O DEA 6,139.00
DEREK DUFFY 6,050.00
EOIN POWER 6,050.00
KEVIN QUINN 6,050.00
ALAN HANLY 6,000.00
ALAN HOGAN 6,000.00
ANNE WALSH 6,000.00
DIARMUID MCNAMEE 6,000.00
EIMEAR REILLY 6,000.00
FRANCES KELLY & THOMAS CARROLL 6,000.00
GARY & URSULA MAC GABHANN 6,000.00
IAN BOWDEN 6,000.00
LEO OWENS 6,000.00
LORRAINE QUINN 6,000.00
LOUGHDAVAN CONSTRUCTION LTD 6,000.00
MICHAEL BARKER 6,000.00
MICHAEL OATES 6,000.00
MULLINGAR FINANCIAL SERVICES LTD 6,000.00
MYLES CREEGAN 6,000.00
PAT & LISA WHELAN 6,000.00
PATRICK NOLAN 6,000.00
PAUL MARTIN 6,000.00
PIERCE & MAURA COMERFORD 6,000.00
SEAMUS & IRENE DOWD 6,000.00
SEAMUS KANE 6,000.00
THOMAS & MARY MC CORMACK 6,000.00
ANDREW SMITH 5,880.00
CORMAC SMITH 5,850.00
COLM LEONARD 5,760.00
PAULINE GRAY 5,750.00
DONAL BUCKLEY 5,707.30
OLWEN COONEY 5,701.00
EAMON LYNCH 5,700.00
GERRY CHANEY & PATRICK DUFFY 5,700.00
PATRICK MORAN 5,645.00
PETER GALLIGAN 5,520.00
BRENDAN & FIONA FALLON 5,500.00
DR SYED ALI 5,500.00
ALAN & JANET JONES 5,495.00
DAVID MC CORMACK 5,471.00
WILLIAM WALSH 5,410.00
AILEEN & BRENDAN DERVAN 5,400.00
COLM MC GREAL 5,400.00
DAN & LOUISE MAGAN 5,400.00
DERMOT MCGUINNESS 5,400.00
ERIN BARRETT 5,400.00
FERGUS DARCY 5,400.00
JAN CUMISKEY 5,400.00
JIM FITZGERALD 5,400.00
JOHN MURPHY 5,400.00
MARIE FOGARTY 5,400.00
NEIL RAWLE 5,400.00
PAUL CURLEY 5,400.00
Personal Information 5,400.00
Personal Information 5,400.00
SEAMUS ROSS 5,400.00
LEO BUCKLEY 5,394.00
Personal Information 5,322.60
JAMES ROCHE 5,200.00
HARRY SKELLY 5,196.00
JOHN WALSHE & MARY GIBLIN 5,196.00
DECLAN TANSEY 5,160.00
MARY CASEY 5,160.00
PAULINE O SHEA 5,160.00
ANDREW O CONNELL 5,100.00
CONOR MC CARTHY 5,100.00
MATHONA MC DONAGH 5,100.00
PATRICIA KEAVENEY 5,100.00
Personal Information 5,100.00
Personal Information 5,078.00
JOHN BUCKLEY 5,065.00
DARRAGH KELLY 5,040.00
ASHLING & STEPHEN DIXON 5,033.00
DENISE HIGGINS 5,001.00
DIAL A CHEF CATERING 4,982.43
PETER & MARTINA GILLIVAN 4,933.00
GERRY FARRELL 4,900.00
PAUL REYNOLDS 4,900.00
TRACEY SMITH 4,805.00
AINE KEIGHRAN 4,800.00
BERNARD GARVEY 4,800.00
FELIX & NICOLA WILSON 4,800.00
IRVINE FERRIS 4,800.00
JOE DUFFY 4,800.00
JOSEPH & HANNAH O´REILLY 4,800.00
LIAM BROWNE 4,800.00
MARK MCGUINNESS 4,800.00
MARY TYNAN 4,800.00
MICHAEL SHAW 4,800.00
MURT O´BRIEN 4,800.00
PATRICK QUAINE 4,800.00
PAUL FLOOD 4,800.00
Personal Information 4,800.00
SEAMUS KENNY 4,800.00
TIMMY FITZPATRICK 4,800.00
Personal Information 4,737.00
BART KANE 4,620.00
EAMON O´REILLY 4,620.00
NICK KILLANE 4,500.00
Personal Information 4,457.00
BRIAN A LENEHAN 4,258.00
EUGENE & SHEENA O BRIEN 4,232.00
EDDIE NAUGHTON 4,200.00
ULVERSCROFT LARGE PRINT BOOKS 4,069.43
JOE BYRNE 4,050.00
KAY SMYTH 3,934.00
FREDA CONNAUGHTON 3,900.00
PADDY CASSIDY 3,744.00
COLIN & SHANNON FARRELL 3,600.00
GERRY BUCKLEY 3,600.00
CHRISTY PARKER 3,531.00
EDWARD CASEY 3,500.00
BALLYRYE LTD 3,441.50
BESPOKE CONSTRUCTION C/O GRANT THORNTON 3,420.00
BRIGHT BOOKS SUPPLIES LTD 3,360.27
KAREN BRODER 3,280.00
HUGH FAGAN 3,150.00
JOHN & CHRISTINA BARRY 3,145.00
THERESE MCKIERNAN 3,120.00
AIDEEN REYNOLDS 3,080.00
MICHAEL JOYCE 3,000.00
GERRY MCCABE 2,776.00
NOEL O DONNELL 2,610.50
BERNARD O NEILL 2,598.00
MEL KILRANE 2,598.00
JOHN FERGUSON 2,400.00
MICHAEL SPILLANE 2,381.00
THOMAS BROWNE 2,170.00
HOMECARE INSULATION LTD 2,155.00
Personal Information 2,155.00
JOHN FARRELL 2,076.00
Personal Information 2,005.00
FRANK GREENE PROPERTY SALES 2,000.00
LONGFORD ARMS HOTEL 1,853.55
IRISH LIBRARY SUPPLIERS LTD 1,741.90
THOMAS MC CORMACK 1,650.00
GERARD P NAUGHTON 1,600.00
EDWARD DENNISTON & CO LTD 1,477.05
TURNERS SWIFT PRINT LTD 1,476.20
COONEYS HOTEL 1,450.00
ALAN JENKINS 1,400.00
THE GREVILLE ARMS 1,373.45
GARY ROBINSON 1,300.00
DREAMLINES ENTERTAINMENT LTD 1,234.64
PETER BRADY 1,200.00
GREY WIZARD DESIGN 1,167.53
RONAN MEELEY 1,140.00
JAMES FITZGERALD 1,032.00
Personal Information 954.30
COMMUNITY INSURANCES CONSULTANTS LTD 827.31
WILLIAM FARRELL PHOTOGRAPHY 800.00
JOSEPH & TERESA KIERNAN 763.00
SKELLYS BAR 735.48
CENTRE NEWS 698.85
PAT & ROSE MCCANN 694.00
BILLY HAWNEY 650.00
DOMINICK COMERFORD 630.00
Personal Information 600.00
GERALDINE BOYLE 550.00
MIDLAND TROPHIES 520.00
ELIZABETH FAGAN 500.00
FUTA FATA 479.87
HANLYS SHOP 457.30
FLANAGANS TAKE AWAY 398.90
FOUR MASTERS PRESS 360.00
Personal Information 358.27
Personal Information 340.00
LUIGIS FAST FOOD 326.30
Personal Information 320.00
COLLUM & BARLEY HARBOUR AMENITY GROUP 306.45
ROBERT MONTGOMERY 295.00
IRISH RAPTOR RESEARCH CENTRE (EAGLES FLYING) 280.00
Personal Information 246.20
Personal Information 240.00
TIGH FILÍ 240.00
Personal Information 235.00
BACKSTAGE THEATRE LTD 218.76
SUPERSAMS 216.90
Personal Information 200.00
ANNE SKELLY 192.00
LONGFORD HISTORICAL SOCIETY 180.00
GIRASOLE PIZZA & PASTA RESTAURANT 172.00
CLARUS PRESS 165.00
Personal Information 160.00
RED ROSE CAFE 160.00
SEAFIELD HOTEL 140.00
THE RUSTIC INN 133.00
STEAK HOUSE RESTAURANT 112.10
Personal Information 110.50
AUDIOGO LIMITED 110.03
BOOKPOINT LTD 107.92
CAREER CHOICE 101.70
AUDREY HEALY 100.00
Personal Information 100.00
TORANN NA DTONN 100.00
Personal Information 99.90
FRONTLINE MAGAZINE LTD 95.00
INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION 86.00
TIME WARNER PUBLISHING B V 84.78
MIDLAND TROPHIES 80.00
Personal Information 80.00
Personal Information 75.00
Personal Information 64.00
Personal Information 60.00
GRANARD INN CHINESE (THU BUI LE THI) 59.00
Personal Information 57.00
ELM PUBLICATIONS 55.46
METRO EIREANN 52.00
Personal Information 50.00
VIEWMOUNT BED & BREAKFAST 50.00
THE HOPE FOUNDATION 47.50
COURTWOOD BOOKS 47.00
DURKINS LONGFORD LTD 45.00
CORK UNIVERSITY PRESS 39.00
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 38.00
INVOLVE LTD 25.00
Personal Information 23.00
INSHORE IRELAND 20.00
RECI 17.30
Accruals and Overhead Allocations -430,469.15

Longford County Council consultancy/professional fees 2011

This is all money spent by Longford County Council on consultancy and professional fees in 2011. The biggest amount went to a law firm.

Ap/Ar ID(T) EURO
E C GEARTY (SOLICITOR) 235,209.67
ORDNANCE SURVEY OFFICE 45,626.28
LOCAL GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT SERVICES BOARD 26,199.75
NATIONAL UNIV OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH 25,483.21
RPS CONSULTANT ENGINEERS 24,000.05
DR NIALL DONOHOE 23,884.59
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF IRELAND 22,000.00
MATHESON ORMSBY PRENTICE 20,338.97
MIRIAM WALSH 18,911.60
STEPHEN BYRNE BARRISTER AT LAW 17,696.25
KEVIN MURPHY 13,241.19
NIALL NALLY 11,323.49
EDEL BIGGINS 10,419.29
FOROIGE 10,000.00
BRENDAN LESLIE 8,932.74
TOBIN CONSULTING ENGINEERS 8,801.87
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 8,672.07
THE COMMISSIONER OF VALUATION 6,750.00
STATE LABORATORY 6,168.00
DOWNEY HYNES PARTNERSHIP 5,791.06
PMS PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT SERVICES LTD 4,720.51
OFFICE OF THE STATE PATHOLOGIST 3,998.26
DR MEL GORMAN 3,931.00
DR PADRAIG MC GARRY 3,403.30
CO OPERATION IRELAND 3,000.00
BOTTLE GREEN DESIGN 2,190.00
MALACHI F. CULLEN 2,105.81
THE DAMP STORE 1,815.00
ABATE COUNSELLING & EAP LIMITED 1,785.58
CHRIS THOMPSON 1,740.00
FRS FIRE & RISK SOLLUTIONS LTD 1,588.13
QUINN BROS 1,534.28
NOEL MONAHAN 1,400.00
BEHAN & ASSOCIATES 1,300.75
MR FRANK BYRNE 1,286.04
LOCAL GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT SERVICES BOARD 1,000.00
CREATE INTERACTIVE 919.60
BARRY HICKEY & HENDERSON SOLICITORS 907.50
VARMING CONSULTING ENGINEERS 847.00
PROPERTY REGISTRATION AUTHORITY 800.00
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH CONSULTANTS LTD 750.00
JOANNE SWEENEY 600.00
P J DONOGHUE 586.00
DALTON AUCTIONEERING 556.60
ANDREW CUNNINGHAM 507.07
LAND REGISTRY 500.00
CLAIRE KEEGAN 500.00
RÉ Ó LAIGHLÉIS 500.00
PETER J MCHUGH & CO 484.00
VISION-NET.IE 484.00
IP FORENSICS 478.97
COMPANIES REGISTRATION OFFICE 450.00
GERRY WYNNE 450.00
CCAS LIMITED 441.30
DR JOHN KEENAN 440.00
SEAN HARRINGTON ARCHITECTS 419.33
ANNE SKELLY 400.00
IPA (PUBLISHING AND SALES) 379.56
CHRISTOPHE LOMBARDI 360.00
ALAN EARLEY 350.00
DERMOT M MACDERMOT & CO SOLICITORS 344.38
BACKSTAGE THEATRE LTD 330.00
DR FRANCESCA M BRETT 321.40
UNIT4 BUSINESS SOFTWARE(IRELAND) LTD 314.60
MARTINA BARRY 300.00
LILIANA PATRICIA MURPHY 300.00
PHILOMENA MURPHY 300.00
BELINDA MC KEON 300.00
KEVIN MURPHY 280.00
DR F.W. FREEMAN 270.00
SHIRLEY MARKLEY 250.00
ULSTER BANK SERVICES LTD 250.00
MARY CLARE IGOE 250.00
HANNAH CARLETON 250.00
TRIONA NI CHNAIMHSI 200.00
VODAFONE IRELAND LIMITED 180.00
GREY WIZARD DESIGN 170.25
LANDDIRECT.IE 150.00
ALISON ENRIGHT BARRISTER AT LAW 140.00
MET EIREANN 80.00
EMOBILE 75.00
MIDOC 60.00
DR KEVIN FLANAGAN 50.00
GARDA JOHN NAUGHTON 15.64
EDEL FALLON 0.00
Accruals and Overhead Allocations -59,471.61
545,069.33

Printing costs of Oireachtas members

Thanks to Catherine Halloran of the Daily Star for sharing the results of this FOI with us. Catherine asked for the number of Christmas cards printed by the Oireachtas printing presses for each TD and Senator, broken down on a individual basic for each TD and Senator and a full breakdown of printing costs in 2012, broken down for each TD and Senator. A total €276,133.96 was spent on printing facilities for members. Here are details of the release:



The top 20 Members:

Member Amount
Richard Bruton € 18,935.17
Robert Dowds € 11,694.80
Regina Doherty € 9,180.03
Richard Boyd Barrett € 6,865.95
Mary Mitchell OConnor € 6,114.87
Lucinda Creighton € 4,831.80
Alan Farrell € 4,817.51
Philip Hogan € 4,794.51
Sandra McLellan € 4,625.99
Micheal Martin € 4,584.02
Patrick ODonovan € 4,331.31
Niall Collins € 4,070.34
Derek Keating € 3,939.11
Robert Troy € 3,866.18
Martin Conway € 3,855.58
Mark Daly € 3,563.76
Martin Heydon € 3,368.14
Patrick Nulty € 3,304.75
Frances Fitzgerald € 3,284.32
Marcella Corcoran Kennedy € 3,187.62

And the full results:

Data

Data

This is the breakdown by party membership:

Public Expenditure and Reform spending – line by line

This data contains all expenditure data by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for the period from inception to June 2012.

In total it contains €21,228,431.30 of expenditure, on the basis of 238 vendors who invoiced the Department for 1,565 separate invoices. It does not appear to include Purchase Orders, which the Department publishes proactively here (albeit in PDF format and only for orders over €20,000). Much of the spending involves the normal day to day spending by any government Department but gives an insight to citizens as to how public money is spent. It does not include expenses claimed or salary data.

Download the data here. (File -> Download)

This spreadsheet contains individual invoices with the largest first:

This is a breakdown per vendor name with the largest first:

Department of Finance expenditure 2008 to 2011

Following an FOI request I obtained Department of Finance expenditure for 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. The data reveals spending of €99,698,862.33 in 15,360 rows. The largest single outgoings were to charities such as the Rehab Group and Gael Linn using lottery money. The Exchequer receives lottery monies directly from An Post National Lottery Company Limited – the Department then disburses the funds to other Departments or holds on to some of the money itself.

If you’re wondering where all the money paid out to advisers like Merrill Lynch and Rothschild is, that money was paid through the NTMA. The top single (not pivoted) outgoings over the four years were:

Amount Account Remarks Purchase Order Detail Company
€ 5,644,928.91 Charitable Lotteries Scheme, Rehab Group 4477
€ 5,625,488.26 Charitable Lotteries Scheme, Rehab Group 4477
€ 5,185,163.72 Charitable Lotteries Scheme, Rehab Group 4477
€ 2,000,000.00 ESRI One off payment, Econ. & Social Research Inst.(ESRI) 1284
€ 1,230,000.00 April – July 09 Grant-in-Aid, Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 1,180,005.00 Current Expenditure,Capital Expenditure, SEUPB Peace 3778
€ 1,154,140.00 current drawdown,capital drawdown, SEUPB Peace 3778
€ 964,995.00 PEACE II Drawdown May 2008,PEACE II Drawdown May 2008, SEUPB Peace 3778
€ 925,000.00 Jan – March Grand in Aid, Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 925,000.00 Grant-in-Aid Aug – Oct 09, Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 885,000.00 current expenditure,capital expenditure, SEUPB Peace 3778
€ 850,000.00 Grant-in-Aid (Jan – March), Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 850,000.00 Grant-In-Aid April – June, Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 850,000.00 Grant-in-aid July – Sept 2010, Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 850,000.00 July – Sept 2010 Grant in aid, Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 733,370.00 Current Programme Expenditure,Capital Programme Expenditure, SEUPB Peace 3778
€ 666,251.00 Peace III 3.1 current,Peace III 3.1 capital, SEUPB Peace III 8266
€ 657,500.00 Current Expenditure,capital expenditure, SEUPB-INTERREG 7027
€ 650,000.00 Jan/Feb 08 Grant in Aid, Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 650,000.00 March & April Grant-in-Aid, Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 650,000.00 May & June 08 Grant-in-Aid, Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 650,000.00 Grant-in-Aid July & August 08, Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 650,000.00 Sept and October 08, Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 650,000.00 Nov/Dec Grant-in-Aid, Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 628,000.00 Current expenditure,capital expenditure, SEUPB Peace III 8266
€ 627,500.00 INTERREG IIIA drawdown May ’08,INTERREG IIIA drawdown May ’08, SEUPB-INTERREG 7027
€ 620,000.00 Grant-in-Aid Final Balance 09, Institute of Public Administration 1,105
€ 618,797.45 Pension Levy Ain A DPER (307 PEAR) 11297
€ 610,413.50 Charitable Lotteries Scheme, Gael Linn 4476
€ 596,977.78 Charitable Lotteries Scheme, Gael Linn 4476
€ 590,000.00 Current expenditure,capital expenditure, SEUPB-INTERREG 7027
€ 564,034.40 Charitable Lotteries Scheme, Gael Linn 4476
€ 550,000.00 current drawdown,capital drawdown, SEUPB-INTERREG 7027
€ 545,000.00 Current Programme Spend,Capital Programme Spend, SEUPB-INTERREG 7027
€ 520,000.00 Re: Cork Créche, Suspense 08, O.P.W. Building and Maintenance 3726

Another interesting little nugget is the spending on lunches for the visits of the IMF in 2009 and 2010. The preferred venue for food was the Pearl Brasserie:

The full data (download here)

Department of Taoiseach expenditure data 2010

Late last year I asked for the follow information from the Department of the Taoiseach:

1) A ‘datadump’, (ie a copy/export of) the Oracle financial management system in use by the Department covering the time period for 2010. This datadump should contain data relating only to the following subheads:

Travel and subsistence (A2)
Training and development and incidental expenses (A3)
Postal and Telecommunications services (A4)
Office equipment and external IT services (A5)
Office premises expenses (A6)
Consultancy services and value for money and policy reviews (A7)
National economic and social (B)
Commemoration initiatives (C)
Tribunal of Inquiry (Payments to Messrs CJ Haughey and M Lowry) (D)

This should include the following column heads (ie fields)
Payment date; Subhead item; Cost Centre; Vendor Name; Invoice number; Line description; Amount.

Subhead A1 covers salary data, which did not form part of this request. While the data was released in a physical hard copy format (yes printed out and posted to me), the total sum of non-salary expenditure should amount to €6.465m. Because I have not converted the documents into spreadsheets, and because some lines are entirely blacked out, I have not been able to perform a SUM calculation on the spreadsheets.

The data contains spending of all types, including telephones, post, lunches, travel, bus fares, road tolls, flights, hotels, taxis, ferries, catering, photography, books, newspapers, bank charges, couriers, tea/coffee, legal charges, uniform cleaning, footwear, mobile phones, photocopying, office equipment, stationery, cleaning, cleaning supplies, and more.


Overtime pay in acute hospitals

Thanks to Jennifer Hough over at the Irish Examiner comes this data relating to overtime pay at the HSE. You can read her story here. She wrote:

Overtime paid to HSE registrars is still costing over €100 million a year, while 15 hospital doctors around the country earned more than €100,000 in overtime alone last year. In the years since the recession hit — from 2009 to the first half of 2011 — €276.2m has been paid to registrars in overtime.

Compared to €219m for 2008 alone, considerable savings have been achieved, but the overtime bill is still topping €100m annually.

One registrar in the west earned €135,100 in overtime last year on top of a salary of at least €70,000. Other top overtime earners in 2010 were: a registrar in HSE South who got €130,098; one in the south who got €123,199 on top of pay; and a registrar in the north-east who received €120,106 in overtime.

Here is one table of data that Jennifer refers to:

And other data with the request:


Expenditure on legal services – Department of the Taoiseach 2006 to 2010

As part of an ongoing process. This document details the expenditure by the Department of the Taoiseach on legal services for the five years from 2006 to 2010. It mostly refers to expenditure in relation to the Moriarty Tribunal, but there are other interesting nuggets in there. Unfortunately, while the data is held on an Oracle database, and it was requested in a digital spreadsheet format, it was not released in this manner. Instead the data was printed to tables, and I had to scan the pages. Conversion to spreadsheets takes time.

Continue reading “Expenditure on legal services – Department of the Taoiseach 2006 to 2010”