Jack Chambers' St Patrick's Day trip cost €29k and included double suite with private pool
Irish Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers faced scrutiny after a St Patrick's Day trip to West Africa cost taxpayers €29,000. Reports highlighted expensive accommodation, including a suite with a private pool, though the minister claimed he was unaware of the pool's inclusion.
Why it matters
The report raises questions regarding government spending transparency and the optics of luxury travel for public officials during official state visits.
The Maison Fimela hotel in Senegal, where Jack Chambers (inset) stayed on his Patrick's Day trip to Africa. Picture: TripAdvisor
Public expenditure minister Jack Chambers' trip to West Africa with a three-person delegation to mark St Patrick's Day cost €29,000, the Irish Examiner has learned.
The minister and his entourage visited Nigeria and Senegal last March.
One of the resorts in which Mr Chambers stayed cost the travelling party roughly €1,300 for the night, about €500 more per night than another hotel the group stayed in in Dakar, Senegal.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show that Mr Chambers' double suite with private pool cost just over €300, twice the price of the rooms his entourage stayed in at the hotel on March 13.
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