It has been revealed that RTÉ paid a whopping €331,000 to send Brendan Murray to the Eurovision.
This figure includes the competition entry fee of €84,500, but does not include RTÉ labour costs.
These numbers were released to the Herald under the Freedom of Information Act.
A total of 16 people were sent over to Ukraine, and they flew economy class and stayed in officially-designated hotels.
Whopping: RTÉ paid a huge amount to send Brendan Murray to the Eurovision | Andres Poveda
The former Hometown star was joined in the Ukraine with his tour manager, five backing vocalists, RTE’s head of press, a sound engineer, a vocal coach and a photographer.
Although Brendan’s performance of Dying To Try failed to get Ireland through to the final, a spokesperson for RTÉ said that the competition gave Irish viewers hours of entertainment.
“This year, an average 273,000 viewers tuned in over the course of the three nights of the contest, representing a 21pc share.”
She said that this represented “excellent value for money for RTE and for Irish television licence-fee payers”.
