All my trips were legitimate - Harney

Health Minister Mary Harney today defended the level of costs she ran up on foreign trips while on official business over a two-and-a-half year period from February 2006 to September 2008.

It was revealed at the weekend that the Minister ran up a bill of €735,000 in use of the Government jet on most of these trips, in addition to hotels and limousine hire costs of €65,000 during the period in question.

Speaking to reporters today, Mary Harney said all the trips that she made on the Government jet were for  "totally legitimate" Government business.

"The vast bulk of the foreign travel is to EU meetings, either formal (Ministerial) council or informal council meetings or to WHO meetings."

She said she recalled that there were three trips to North America during the period in question.

"One was a trip to Canada in relation to the cancer control programme; another was to Philadelphia to a major research conference that I was invited to participate in as Tanaiste, and the third was to look at cancer facilities as well.

"Every single trip that I make and my colleagues make are legitimate. Many of my colleagues at European level also use Government facilities."

The Minister said she was Tanaiste for two of the three years concerned when the expenditure occurred.

She said many of the events she attended during the period in question were in her previous capacity as Tanaiste, representing the Government.

"But clearly, every single visit is legitimate and has to be legitimate."

The Minister also defended the sizeable retinue of advisers and civil servants she took on some of the trips.

"Very often when we are going on a trip like that we have some of the medical advisers from the Department and some people from the administrative side.

"If you are going to get advice and see how things are done, like (the visit to) the new Children's Hospital in Chicago, which very much fed into what we are doing here in Dublin, it is appropriate that you would bring an adviser and a medical adviser, and somebody from the administration side."

Ms Harney said her Department kept the numbers on these visits to a minimum, including if the Government jet is being used. She said regardless of the number of people travelling on the jet, the cost (an estimated €7,000 per hour) is the same.

"But I can tell you we keep it to a minimum and I keep my foreign travel to a minimum."

One of the Government jet trips concerned was a visit to Arizona and Houston in February 2008 with her husband and six civil servants and advisers, and a trip to Canada in February 2006 accompanied by civil servants and a reporting crew from RTE, the Sunday Tribune has reported.

Details of Mary Harney's expenses given to the newspaper last Sunday were "heavily edited and delayed".

On the trip to Arizona and Houston, car hire costs came to €10,208 while the trip in total cost the taxpayer €190,000. The Minister attended the Super Bowl during this trip.

The Minister was also about her Department being in breach of FOI legislation by failing to meet deadlines for the release of documentation to another newspaper, the Irish Mail on Sunday.

The Minister said that in fairness to the staff involved, one of them was out sick for two weeks and another had a serious illness in his family.

She said the staff concerned should have sought an extension to give them more time to come up with the documentation. "That didn't happen but I can assure you it is an independent process."

The Department of Health has already denied that the Minister knew anything about FOI requests about her expenses.

"The staff in my Department and in every other Department that have responsibility under the law take those responsibilities very, very seriously. I want to fully defend the staff. I am not involved in this process (FOI requests), nor is any other political person involved in the process."

The Minister said there were particular reasons why her civil servants did not trigger the additional information clauses they could have done to give them a little more time beyond set deadlines to respond to the FOI requests.

She said she had no problem in issuing everything in full under FOI relating to expenses.

"There in no difficulty whatever in full disclosure of any expenses of any Ministers in the Government, nor should there be", Ms Harney told reporters.

It is expected that further details of the Health Minister's expenses will be released to the media under FOI shortly.

Ms Harney was speaking today after launching a new national pharmacy internship programme at the College of Surgeons in Dublin.

See also: Lear Jet logic – lessons from the expenses scandal.

[Posted: Tue 13/10/2009]