DESPITE popular myth, all junkets are not lavishly fun occasions, as Quidnunc discovered this week from the survivors of a trip to Germany by members of the Dail Select Committee on Enterprise and Economic Strategy.
Led by chairman Michael Bell, Deputies Michael Ahern, Hugh Byrne, Sean Power, Michael Creed and Seymour Crawford set out a couple of weeks ago for a three-day stay near Stuttgart to discuss the economy and unemployment with their European colleagues.
"Half-starved you said? We were wholly starved," said one member of the delegation. It was a disaster from the accommodation, which was barrack-like with hard beds, to the food which was all greens. Even to drive past a butcher's shop would have done me good. It was less. pleasant than Mountjoy. Our chairman certainly came home less plump.
The conference took place in an academy in remote countryside. There was no bar, no television in the rooms, no wine with meals and "bloody greens morning, noon and night". Escape to civilisation involved a long and expensive taxi ride. One of the organisers, by way of explanation, said the area was very Green, politically, as well as every other way. "In fact we learnt a lot and it was a good conference if only you had got a bit to eat," said Quidnunc's source.
To add insult to injury, the one night the Irish group escaped for a meal the restaurant refused to take a credit card and they were reduced to collecting what little money they had left, from the meagre allocation they were given on departure, to meet the bill.