RealIrishNews@RealIrishNews
Dublin Lord Mayor Ray McAdam's Luxury Globetrotting: Tens of Thousands – Possibly Hundreds – on Taxpayer-Funded Trips to the French Riviera, San Jose and Beyond.
Since taking office as Dublin Lord Mayor on 30 June 2025, Real Irish News can reveal Fine Gael councillor Ray McAdam has racked up eye-watering travel bills on the public purse, with Freedom of Information releases exposing lavish international junkets amid Dublin's housing crisis and council rent hikes.
In March 2026 alone, McAdam and Dublin City Council staff and councillors embarked on over a dozen official trips to glamorous European capitals and the US west coast including the French Riviera, Berlin, Prague, Amsterdam, Rome and San Jose in California.
The documented luxury is hard to ignore.
French Riviera, nearly €11,400 on a four-star Royal Antibes hotel with its own private beach.
Five delegates enjoyed three nights in sea-view apartments at €592 per person per night, with one extra night costing over €625.
San Jose, California: €24,000 total for a five-person, four-night trip.
McAdam flew business class at almost €5,900, while DCC chief executive Richard Shakespeare’s seat cost €4,185. The group stayed at the four-star Westin in the city centre (around €460 per room per night), with accommodation alone hitting €11,000.
Add in flights and hotels for Berlin, Prague, Amsterdam and Rome all part of the same month’s spending spree – and the March bill alone runs into tens of thousands.
When you factor in McAdam’s full term to date, including earlier trips like Toronto in December 2025, the true figure for international travel and hospitality since he took office is widely speculated to be heading into the hundreds of thousands of euros.
McAdam has defended the California jaunt as “selling Dublin” for investment, claiming it follows long-standing practice for twinned cities and that business class was council policy for long-haul flights with immediate work.
But critics including other councillors – have slammed it as “an absolute insult” to ordinary Dubliners facing spiralling rents and a cost-of-living crunch.
What exactly is the Lord Mayor doing on these trips on the public euro?
Jetting business class to sun-soaked private beaches on the French Riviera or Silicon Valley networking hubs while council tenants get rent hikes?
Sightseeing in Prague or Rome under the guise of “official business”?
With no detailed public breakdown of every trip’s outcome, no announced mega-deals or job figures tied directly to these junkets many Dubliners are left asking whether this is genuine city promotion or simply the perks of the office at taxpayers’ expense.
As McAdam campaigns in the upcoming Dublin Central by-election, these revelations raise serious questions about his value for money.
In a city battling homelessness and soaring living costs, should the Lord Mayor’s travel habits really be this lavish?
The public deserves full transparency on every euro spent and clear answers on what, if anything, these five star lifestyles are delivering for Dublin or thr Country.
