The Department of Foreign Affairs spent more than €1 million last year on new cars including €335,000 for armoured vehicles for use in high-risk environments.
The largest bill was the €168,106 which was paid for a Toyota Land Cruiser 300 GXR for use in Abuja in Nigeria, FOI records showed.
The vehicle, which was bought for security purposes, was purchased from a dealership in Toronto for more than €163,000 and shipped to Africa at a cost of roughly €4,500.
A similar armoured Land Cruiser was bought for the Irish Representative Office in Ramallah in Palestine.
The black utility vehicle was bought from the United Arab Emirates at a cost of €85,569 while the previous car in use there was traded in for just over €32,000.
A third high-spec Land Cruiser was purchased at the Irish Embassy in the Colombian capital of Bogotá.
It cost just over €81,000 when it was purchased last November, according to invoices provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Two other Land Cruisers were bought for use in West Africa, for diplomats in Freetown in Sierra Leone and Dakar in Senegal; they cost around €58,000 each.
In less risky environments, the biggest outlay was the €54,967 that was spent on a Lexus RX Hybrid car for the Wellington Embassy in New Zealand.
Ireland’s diplomatic outpost in Bangkok in Thailand purchased a €46,148 Volvo S60 Hybrid while another Volvo Hybrid was bought for €41,055 in Frankfurt in Germany.
Also listed in a log of expenditure from the department were a €41,000 Toyota Camry Hybrid for Prague and a €40,591 BYD Denza Electric to be used in Beijing.
A range of other cars were also bought while seven old vehicles were traded in for a combined €75,958.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said these cars were used throughout the working day and evenings on journeys that would sometimes be hundreds of miles.
They said vehicles were selected based on factors including public transport options, security considerations, climate, terrain, and safety.
An information note said: “[They] are used for as long as they can be operated in a safe and efficient manner without excessive maintenance costs or substantial reduction in their trade-in value.”
They said replacement only went ahead where the vehicle was old, where there was a business requirement, or when the costs of maintenance made keeping it uneconomical.
The department said they were also committed to more fuel-efficient models when practical but that some missions operated in difficult environments where “security and health and safety issues” were the top priority.
