Number of foreign dignitaries staying at Farmleigh dropped off since 2008

What do deposed president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak, former US president Jimmy Carter and King of Lesotho Letsie III all have in common?

They are part of a small select group of dignitaries to have stayed at the State’s dedicated residence for heads of state and dignitaries, Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park, over the past 12 years.

The 78-acre Farmleigh estate was purchased by the State in 1999 at a cost of €29.2 million from the Guinness family and the residence is used not only for VIPs’ overnight stays, but is also open to the public and last year, the number of public visitors was 375,064.

Costs
Separately, 2,297 people attended 39 high-level events at Farmleigh.

According to Minister Hayes, the capital works, operations and maintenance costs of Farmleigh totalled €38.75 million between 2001 and 2012 with energy costs during the same period totalling €1.5 million.

The costs associated with operating Farmleigh have declined sharply in recent years.

According to figures provided by the Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure, Brian Hayes, only eight heads of state have stayed at Farmleigh in the past 4½ years and the operating costs of Farmleigh during that period was more than €11 million.

In the last 18 months to the end of June (2013), Mr Hayes confirmed that only two heads of state or prime ministers, King Letsie III of Lesotho and the prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, have stayed there.

King Letsie was the only head of state to stay at Farmleigh in 2012 – former president Mubarak stayed at the residence in 2006.

The figures show that the number of overseas dignitaries staying at Farmleigh has dropped off significantly since 2008. According to Mr Hayes, there have been 40 stays by heads of state and dignitaries since 2001.

The figures provided by Mr Hayes show the number that stayed at the residence in 2011 was three; one in 2010; two in 2009; five in 2008, five in 2007; six in 2006; five in 2005; two in 2004 and nine between 2001 and 2003.

Heads of state to have stayed at Farmleigh include Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Albert of Monaco and King of the Belgians King Harald.

The costs associated with operating Farmleigh have declined sharply in recent years.

In the first year of opening in 2001, the cost of capital works, operations and maintenance totalled €5.92 million. Last year the costs totalled €2.77million. The initial high costs included the Office of Public Works work of restoring the estate.

Some 34 full-time and six part-time staff work out of Farmleigh.

Mr Deasy said yesterday that “the annual costs of Farmleigh are hard to justify and I believe the time has come for the State to seek a nominal charge from the thousands of day visitors to the residence each year”.