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RTÉ has spent more than €425,000 of taxpayer's money making sure its stars look their best, new documents reveal.

The national broadcaster splashed out €207,687 on clothes, shoes and accessories for onscreen talent in 2014.

RTÉ's entertainment shows racked up bills of €60,212, while the news and current affairs department spent €51,127.

The station spent a further €58,000 on wardrobe for the cast of 'Fair City', which has roughly 22 stars.

Outfits for on-screen talent on Ryan Tubridy's 'The Late Late Show' cost €20,689 last year - double the €9,519 spent in 2013.

The wardrobe bill for Brendan O'Connor's 'The Saturday Night Show' was €7,582 in 2014, more than double the amount spent the previous year.

Meanwhile the taxpayer forked out just over €28,000 for clothes and shoes for the country's most popular newsreaders on RTÉ One's flagship news programmes the 'One O'Clock News', 'Six One News' and 'Nine News'.

FOI documents released to the Irish Independent also reveal that RTE forked €2,004,000 on transport for employees both in Ireland and abroad last year - a 10 per cent jump on 2013 when the bill was €1.8m.

The national broadcaster confirmed it clocked up a travel bill of €2,004,000 in 2014 - a rise of almost 10pc on the previous year.

The organisation spent €388,000 on taxi fares within Dublin alone last year - a jump of €50,000 on 2013.

“Other expenses" including road mileage, bus fares and ferry costs saw the biggest jump in RTE’s travel costs in 2014, rising from €950,000 in 2013 to €1,064,000 last year.

The broadcaster spent €483,000 on air fares last year, a drop of €1,000 from 2013.

The station also clocked up €36,000 on rail fares and an estimated spend of €34,000 on taxis outside Dublin.

RTE told the newspaper in a statement:

"During 2014 RTÉ personnel had to travel to cover key events of national importance including the World Cup, the state visit of the President to the UK and European soccer qualifiers."

"Providing live coverage of these, and other events, necessitated additional travel, both at home and abroad, and this is reflected in the increased travel expenditure."

The broadcaster said it has been proven to be "efficiently run".

The statement said: "In overall terms RTÉ has reduced its operating cost by almost €130M since 2008. During this period RTÉ has also been subject to extensive independent review; including a review by New Era which found RTÉ to be efficiently run," RTÉ said.

However national broadcaster declined to comment on the increase in Dublin taxi costs and the "other travel expenses" category.