PANTI Bliss reportedly travelled to Vietnam for Pride 2017 using taxpayer's money.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed that Panti and her team racked up €5,203 worth of flights and hotels for a trip to advertise Panti's documentary Queen of Ireland.
According to The Irish Mirror, Panti and her tour manager were flown to Hanoi, Hoa Binh and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and then onwards to Bangkok, where she acted as a guest speaker at events over the course of eight days.
Irish political movement Clann submitted the FOI request and deemed the usage of the money as Panti's tour as wasteful. Spokesperson Matt O'Connor said: "Sending a rich celebrity on a taxpayer-funded junket to Vietnam when homeless people are dying on our streets is an unacceptable use of Irish aid.
"How many nights’ accommodation for a homeless person would €5,000 provide, or how could that money be used to reduce hospital waiting lists?"
The Department of Foreign Affairs defended the trip, saying that Panti Bliss was invited by the "embassies of Ireland to Vietnam and to Thailand".
A spokesman for the department made a statement saying: "Mr O’Neill was accompanied by a tour manager responsible for the preparation, content,
logistics and media aspects of the visit.
"Both individuals very generously provided their time pro bono and the costs incurred by the embassy covered economy flights and local accommodation for eight working days."
