The Mansion House paid more than €2,200 in taxpayers’ money to former presidential candidate Gavin Duffy for a media training session for Dublin’s Lord Mayor.

The training module included Mr Duffy conducting an interview with Lord Mayor Nial Ring, in which he picked apart the good and bad responses made by the north inner city councillor.

When contacted over the payment to Gavin Duffy and Associates, Mr Ring said he hadn’t known the cost before agreeing to the training session.

In total, €2,214 was paid for the one-to-one training, according to expenditure details obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The payment was made out to Dorland Training Ltd T/A Gavin Duffy and Associates on July 18, 2018.

It is understood the training lasted around three hours.

Dublin City Council, which oversees Mansion House spending, said such training was offered to all those in office. “Given the profile of the office, each incoming lord mayor is offered media training during the first few weeks of their term of office,” a statement said.

Mr Ring told Independent.ie the training took place on the morning of Monday, July 9.

It was conducted before Mr Duffy launched his presidential campaign last year.

The media guru eventually received the lowest number of votes of all six candidates in the race.

Gavin Duffy and Associates confirmed it charges €1,800 for a three-hour session, but would not comment further, citing client confidentiality reasons. It is understood that figure is before VAT.

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