Graham Norton's pad and a trip to space: what else could Ireland's newest EuroMillions winner buy with €250m?

Irish Times

5 hours ago

While €250 million might sound like an eye-watering, life-changing amount of money, it is all relative and we should note that it would barely cover 10 per cent – or not even one floor – of the new
national children's hospital
.
And
the latest EuroMillions winner
would only be able to buy 703
State-approved bike sheds
or 20 houses on Ireland's leafiest of roads.
But what else might the holder of the luckiest of tickets consider spending their money on?
Emma Monaghan, the spokeswoman for the
National Lottery
, advised them to 'have a cup of tea' and try to remain calm.
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It is sound advice and while the winner is having that tea they might allow their mind to wander in the direction of what comes next.
First on the agenda is likely to be a holiday somewhere lovely.
Now, obviously, the days of three-star aparthotels in Salou are over and the winner will be looking at somewhere considerably more fancy.
The good news is the villa at Sandy Lane in Barbados is available for two weeks from next Saturday.
The 'stately five-bedroom' place covers almost 700sq m and is 'nestled amongst tropical gardens'. it comes with its own pool – obviously – and an 'oversized Jacuzzi'.
It is catered by a resident chef and there is complimentary laundry, airport transfers, champagne and canapés and free golf.
Well, we say free but with the stay costing €9,646 per night, it is anything but free.
A two-week break there will cost just over €135,000.
That does not include the cost of getting there.
The winner's days of flying
Ryanair
might well be over although
Michael O'Leary
seems happy enough to fly with his own airline and he has more than a trifling €250 million to play with.
Four first-class return flights from London to Barbados will cost the winner just under €30,000.
The gang of four will have to make it to London. One imagines they will not be rubbing shoulders with the rest of us and will probably use the Dublin Airport Platinum suite, which will cost them €475 each.
For that money they get to chill out in a private lounge and eat free grapes and biscuits while waiting for their flight to be called. When it is, they will be brought through private security screening and driven in a shiny black Mercedes to the door of the plane just as it is ready to take off.
If we allow just €800 for four flights to and from London the total cost of this fanciest of holidays comes in at €167,700, which doesn't even make a dent in the jackpot win.
In the longer term, the winner might consider travelling like other members of the super-rich gang to which they now belong.
To be admitted to this gang – which is made up of just 1,600 people in Ireland – they need to have a net worth of €200 million.
If they want to invest in a Gulf Stream G800 – which has four distinct living areas including an executive work space, a lounge area with seats that transform into flat beds, a full kitchen and a master bedroom with a queen-sized bed and full en-suite bathroom – they will need to spend just over €70 million of their jackpot.
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The price does not include jet fuel, crew or staff.
If the winner, upon their return to Ireland, would like another trip – one that is out of this world – they might consider following in the footsteps of
Katy Perry
and going into space on the Amazon founder
Jeff Bezos
's ship, although they will have to pay about €25 million for the privilege.
And if
the reaction
to Perry's jaunt is anything to go by, it is not a move that will be welcomed by anyone other than, perhaps, Bezos.
The bad news for the winner is that despite the size of the jackpot, most superyachts are beyond them, with prices for the biggest and poshest of boats floating at about the €300 million mark.
They could, however, probably rent one that an oligarch could be proud of for no more than €1 million. Per week.
Holidays aside, the winner will soon have to turn their attention to where they live long term.
According to myhome.ie, the most expensive home for sale in Ireland right now is on Shrewsbury Road in Dublin 4, with an asking price of €11 million.
Once they have secured that home, the winner might like to have homes farther afield – maybe a brownstone in New York or a villa in the south of France?
The most expensive property on the New York market is in what the internet tells us in the 'landmark Steinway Tower'.
The quadplex spans more than 1,100sq m over four floors and has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, multiple lounges and a huge terrace 'with sweeping views of Central Park and both rivers on either side of Manhattan'.
The price? A snip at $110 million (€96 million). That is obviously insane money but the winner might instead consider Graham Norton's New York pad, which is
on the market for a mere €4.94 million
.
Meanwhile, a 'superb contemporary property, recently renovated, with an elevator and a pool' near Nice is on the market for €3.3 million.
Built on two main living levels, the property has 350sq m of living space and a large open kitchen, as well as four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a shower room on the upper floor.
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There is, we are told, a 'magnificent rooftop terrace for beautiful receptions'.
Beautiful friends to attend the beautiful receptions are not included in the price.
Then, of course, there are the cars you will need.
You could get yourself a Ferrari LaFerrari – so fancy they named it twice – for €6 million, although we did have a look at it and we'd be concerned the boot wouldn't accommodate a big shop from Lidl, so that might have to be the treat car.
A Rolls-Royce Spectre EV will cost in the region of half a million euro while a high-spec Range Rover will cost you the guts of €150,000.
The cost, meanwhile, of fully vaccinating a child in the developing world for the first two years of their life varies depending on where they are but, according to Unicef, it the average is about €63.
That means the winner could pay for the vaccination of nearly four million children and still have a life-changing €10 million to spend on themselves.
Their choice.