Officials from the Stormont Executive’s three foreign bureaux in Washington DC, Brussels and Beijing have defended spending more than £400,000 on hospitality in the last five years as a “strategic investment” in Northern Ireland.
The Irish News reported this week that the three foreign offices had amassed the £400,000 hospitality spend since 2020, more than the rest of its sponsor department The Executive Office combined in the same time.
Representatives from the three bureaux, who are in place to represent the north’s interests in the United States, the European Union and China, appeared before a Stormont scrutiny committee on Wednesday and faced questions over the spend, which had been described as “deeply troubling”.
Paula Bradshaw, Alliance MLA and chair of the TEO committee, asked whether any cost analysis was carried out by the bureaux.
Aodhán Connolly from the Brussels bureau said the hospitality expenditure was about more than “just meals”.
“It’s a strategic investment in access, influence, relationship building and broadly supporting the programme for government objectives and delivering on it,” Mr Connolly said.
“That spend that was talked about covers three bureaux in three different international environments over five years.
“Annualised, it’s modest and tightly targeted.
“It’s a tool of access, convening power, relationship maintenance in places where decisions are shaped, and used properly it buys you time with the right people in the right format at the right moment.
“I did hear someone say it was ‘simply meals’, which kind of underdoes what we do.”
Representing the Washington bureau, Richard Cushnie said the US Capitol was “uniquely competitive” in terms of engagement with decision makers and that all spending was “purposeful”.
Kerry Cullen, who heads the Beijing bureau, said hospitality was particularly important in China as it is a “very relationship-led environment”.
“It’s culturally a very important aspect of activity here and there’s a strong expectation of professional reciprocity when we host events versus when we attend events.”
