Marine One takes off from Doonbeg Golf resort in County Clare

Marine One takes off from Doonbeg Golf resort in County Clare

THE TRUMP DOONBEG resort in Co Clare was paid over €107,000 to provide food to gardaí deployed around west Clare to protect the US President during his two night June visit.

A ‘ring of steel’ was placed around the luxury coastal resort for the visit in the first week in June as the Donald Trump-owned property enjoyed worldwide publicity from the presidential visit.

Now, new figures show that the Trump resort earned over €113,000 in payments from the gardai for catering and accommodation from the visit.

The total accommodation and catering bill from the garda operation amounts to €904,553.

The figures show that the Trump Doonbeg resort received the highest amount of any enterprise providing catering services to gardai at €107,625 for the presidential visit.

In addition, gardai paid Trump Doonbeg €5,976 for accommodation.

Trump’s visit to Doonbeg was his seventh since he purchased the resort for a knock-down price in 2014 but was his first as US President.

The Trump organisation has invested €40 million into the resort – including the purchase price – over the past five years.

In total, 23 accommodation providers – mainly made up of Clare hotels – were paid €544,983 to accommodate gardai during the Trump security operation.

The largest amount however went to the University of Limerick (UL) owned student accommodation provider, Plassey Trust Company which was paid €216,601.

Food

The figures show that the 11 food providers received €359,579 from An Garda Síochána with Trump Doonbeg receiving 30% of that overall total.

Underlining the scale of the security operation for the Trump visit, the FOI response discloses that 3,820 gardaí received overtime payments in connection with the Trump visit – around 27% of the overall strength of the garda force of 14,251.

The size of the operation resulted in an over-time payout of €7.489 million.

A garda spokesman said today that the total garda spend for the Trump visit at August 31st stood at €11.3m.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris disclosed yesterday that the spend by the force in connection with the President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence visits is in the order of €15-18 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 man drives a ride on lawnmower past a Garda checkpoint in the village of Doonbeg. Source: PA Images

The figures show that another 37 suppliers were paid a total of €844,872 for various services connected to the garda operation and the biggest winner there was Denis O’Brien’s Actavo Events Ireland Ltd which received €269,208 for the “hire of equipment”.

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

A Garda Síochána also paid Anderco Safety (Irl) Ltd €47,164 for ‘clothing’ while Wellness Mineral Water Ltd was paid €7,894 for bottled water.

Other accommodation providers to receive in excess of €20,000 to accommodate gardai during the security operation include Property Management Ireland Ltd – €39,050; Lahinch Coast Hotel – €33,180; Hotel Woodstock – €28,512; Clare Coast Hotels €25,200; Kilkee Bay Hotel – €22,150; The Inn at Dromoland – €21,900 and Treacy’s Oakwood Hotel €20,940.

The visit was a boon for a number of Clare businesses who provided food for gardai.

Along with Trump Doonbeg receiving €107,625, Treacy’s Oakwood Hotel received €75,379 for catering; Kilkee Bay Hotel received €64,050; the Bellbridge Hotel at Spanish Point received €37,872 while the Shannon Springs Hotel received €21,101.

Trump Doonbeg referred queries on the catering services provided to gardai to the Trump Organisation in the US and no response has issued from the Trump Organisation.

An Garda Síochána was also unable to provide additional detail relating to the scale of the catering services provided by Trump Doonbeg to the force.