Department of Foreign Affairs paid €21,000 for four-star hotel for Ambassador after official residence was deemed “unsafe and uninhabitable”

The Department of Foreign Affairs paid out more than €21,000 for a four-star hotel for the Irish Ambassador in Cairo after his official residence was deemed “unsafe and uninhabitable”.

The Ambassador had to stay in the luxury Hilton Cairo Zamalek Residences overlooking the Nile for almost four months last year because of “structural” issues discovered at his diplomatic residence.

Two separate accommodation bills were paid by the department, one for €11,438 and another for just over €10,000, according to invoices.