No expenses spared as Boss let State pick up the tab for wine

HAUGHEY INVOICES:THE LATE Charles Haughey ordered a case of expensive wine five days before leaving office in 1981, State papers for the Department of the Taoiseach show.

Haughey, who had delivered his infamous speech warning citizens of living “way beyond our means” 18 months earlier, also ordered alcohol to the value of more than £260 (€330) on the day of the general election, June 11th.

Haughey’s Fianna Fáil government was replaced by a Fine Gael-Labour coalition government led by Garret FitzGerald.

After losing the election and five days before he left office, expenses documents show Haughey ordered the dozen bottles of Château Rauzan-Ségla Margaux 1971 (pictured, right) from wine and spirit merchants Bagots Group, based at the North Wall, worth almost £90.

The 1971 version of this dry red wine from the Bordeaux region of France was considered a very good vintage. At the time the average weekly industrial wage was £112.

Among Haughey’s expenses files a note from the wine merchant dated November 19th includes a copy of the invoice and says, “we look forward to receiving a cheque in the near future”.

And a note from the Department of Finance to one of Haughey’s staff, Nuala Turner, dated November 24th, 1981, highlights the wine bill and says, “if it was supplied for official entertainment purposes, I would be grateful if you would certify the invoice and return it to me”.

Alcohol ordered on the day of the election included five bottles of Martini, 13 bottles of various whiskeys, gin, vodka, Bacardi and brandy.

Documents show Haughey ordered the alcohol for “official entertainment” in his rooms in Leinster House and Government Buildings.

The file also showed a note to the Department of Finance dated March 1981 seeking sanction to pay a bill of more than £3,800 from the Royal Hibernian Hotel.

It was incurred in December 1980 when Haughey hosted a luncheon for 95 guests including former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her “personal entourage and supporting officials”.

A similar note, dated March 2nd, 1981, sought payment for two dinners costing a total of £304 held at Abbeville, Haughey’s north Dublin home.

The dinners, which were hosted on September 30th and October 7th, 1980, were held for Dr Mahmoud Fustok who headed an Iraqi delegation to Ireland and included six guests and eight guests respectively.

The menus included beef Wellington, smoked salmon, oysters and quail.

Special permission had to be sought for payment of the bills because they were £178 in excess of the limits set at the time for entertaining.

While Garret FitzGerald also hosted dinners in his Dublin home, they were not so extravagant. One note dated December 9th mentioned dinner supplied at his Ranelagh home for John Hume, then an MEP, valued at £30.50 and for Ulster Unionist Bill Craig for £22.88.

“Provisions were purchased locally and receipts were not retained,” the note says.

Entertainment expenses for 1981 are listed on the file as totalling more than £9,300. They include bills incurred by Fianna Fáil government press secretary Frank Dunlop and Fine Gael government press secretary the late Liam Hourican.

The bills were incurred at venues including Le Coq Hardi restaurant in Ballsbridge, the National Gallery restaurant on Kildare Street, the Saddle Room at the Shelbourne Hotel on St Stephen’s Green and the Grey Door restaurant on Pembroke Street.

The bills often included after-dinner brandies and cigars.

One dinner, at Le Coq Hardi, hosted by Dunlop on March 14th, 1981, cost almost £160. The guests were eight political correspondents including “C Glennon, G Kennedy and S Duignam [sic]”.

The bill was over the allowable amount by almost £80 and needed specific approval from the Department of Finance.

The second government press secretary for the year also needed to seek approval for many of his bills.

On October 9th a letter was written from the Department of Finance to the Department of the Taoiseach complaining of his excess at four lunches in September and October.

“I am to say that the minister is perturbed to note the high level of expenditure in this instance, and in particular that the lunch on September 21st cost £27.05 per person, which is nearly four times the delegated limit.

“I am to request your department to bring the entertainment limits to Mr [Liam] Hourican’s attention with a view to keeping expenditure on entertainment within approved limits in future.”