Doonbeg resort was paid €100,000 to feed gardaí during Trump’s visit

The Donald Trump-owned Trump Doonbeg resort in Co Clare was paid over €100,000 to feed gardaí on duty across west Clare to protect the US president during his two-night visit in June.

The total bill for accommodation and food for the Garda operation throughout Co Clare for the visit came to €904,553, according to replies to a Freedom of Information request.

The largest share of the €359,579 spent on catering went to Doonbeg, which got €107,000. The rest was shared by 10 other companies. Another €6,000 was paid for hotel bills for gardaí stationed at Doonbeg itself during the visit

In total 23 accommodation providers – mainly Clare hotels – were paid €544,983 to accommodate gardaí during Trump’s visit to Doonbeg, his first as president but his seventh since he bought it in 2014.

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The largest single accommodation bill was paid to the University of Limerick-owned student accommodation company Plassey Trust Company, which was paid €216,601.

Illustrating the scale of the security operation, 3,820 gardaí were on overtime during the visit – around 27 per cent of the overall 14,251 strength of the Garda – at a cost of €7.489 million.

A Garda spokesman said on Friday that the total Garda spend for the Trump visit at August 31st stood at €11.3 million.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris disclosed on Thursday that the spend by the force in connection with the President Trump and vice-president Mike Pence visits was in the order of €15 million to €18 million.

The top earning Garda member from the Trump operation received €12,915 in overtime payments, and was followed by colleagues who received €11,093 and €10,608 in overtime.

A number of bus operators were deployed to transport gardaí, and the figures show that Bus Éireann was paid €169,650; Scales Bus Tours Ltd was paid €145,800, while Mike Hynan Coach Services receiving €46,000.