New figures provided by IDA Ireland in response to a Freedom of Information Act request show that the agency\u2019s spending on flights for staff has more than doubled, from \u20ac579,103 in 2024 to \u20ac1.36m last year.<\/p>\n
The top amount paid to an airline was to Aer Lingus which received \u20ac321,931 flying IDA staff on routes to Europe, the UK and the US.<\/p>\n
The spend by the IDA on hotels for staff last year totalled \u20ac979,231 across 2,702 bookings which was slightly ahead of the \u20ac931,506 hotel bill for 2024 arising from 2,401 bookings.<\/p>\n
The figures show that Mr Lohan\u2019s overseas work for the agency took him to Osaka, Dubai, Zurich, Seattle and Washington. His air-miles of 58,983 was down on the 74,387 that he flew in 2024.<\/p>\n
The IDA spend on Mr Lohan\u2019s 28 flights in 2025 totalled \u20ac40,594 compared to an outlay of \u20ac25,427 the previous year.<\/p>\n
The amount spent on his hotel accommodation reduced from \u20ac9,171 in 2024 to \u20ac6,782 in 2025.<\/p>\n
The detailed figures show that the most expensive nightly hotel rate incurred by the IDA Ireland for its chief executive was at Carnation Hotel Group-owned The Rubens At The Palace in London at a cost of \u20ac470.34. Mr Lohan stayed there for one night only.<\/p>\n
The second highest rate was \u20ac466.80 for the Deerpath Inn in Chicago, while the cheapest hotel rate obtained was at Hotel Marquette in Minneapolis at \u20ac240.80.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for the state agency said: \u201cWith a workforce of 411 staff, IDA Ireland operates across 21 international offices spread across North America and Canada, Asia and Europe \u2013 alongside our headquarters in Dublin and regional locations throughout Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cExpenditure on hotels by the organisation reflects the extensive breadth and reach of the geographic marketplaces covered by the organisation to deliver on our global remit. IDA Ireland adheres to strict guidelines for travel arrangements to ensure value for money.<\/p>\n
\u201cTravel and associated hotel expenditure are an essential part of IDA Ireland\u2019s work as an investment promotion agency. These activities enable us to build strong relationships with our client base of over 1800 companies and to showcase Ireland\u2019s strengths to prospective investors worldwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis work is crucial in attracting and securing investment that drives economic growth and job creation across the country, whilst also ensuring a steady pipeline of future foreign direct investment for Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New figures provided by IDA Ireland in response to a Freedom of Information Act request show that the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,96961,61,60],"class_list":["post-432745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ida","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}