GOVERNMENT MINISTERS have taken 144 internal flights within the State over the past 2½ years at a total cost of €350,000 to the taxpayer.
Senior and junior Ministers have used both of the Government jets, Air Corps fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to travel within the State’s borders. The flights were taken between January 2007 and the end of June this year.
The schedule of all ministerial flights taken on Government aircraft since 2007 has been obtained by Fine Gael TD Michael Ring.
The Mayo TD has described the use of State aircraft by Ministers for domestic flights as an “outrage” and a “terrible waste of money”. He accused some Ministers of using such aircraft as a “glorified taxi” to ferry them to and from their constituencies.
The details of all flights taken by Government Ministers on the Gulfstream IV jet, the Learjet, the Beechcraft and Casa fixed-wing aircraft as well as the E135 and AW139 helicopters was released to Mr Ring by Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea on foot of a parliamentary question.
In all, 481 flights were made by Ministers, both domestically and internationally, during the period. The total cost to the State came to almost €7 million from flights taken between January 2007 and June this year, or some €4 million if the lower “direct costs” calculation used by the Department of Defence is used.
Three senior Ministers have made particularly frequent use of State aircraft for internal flights over the past 2½ years. They are Minister for Health Mary Harney, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin.
Ms Harney took 24 flights to destinations including Galway, Cork, Kerry and Shannon, 10 of them by Government jet.
The total cost to the taxpayer of her use of Government aircraft has been an estimated €54,296, or some €28,000 using a lower direct cost base.
The lower cost base calculates additional costs to those associated with having the aircraft. The higher “total cost” base also factors in depreciation and personnel costs.
For example, the direct cost an hour of using the Gulfstream IV is €4,050, while the total cost is almost double that figure at €7,980 an hour.
Ms Coughlan has taken 17 domestic flights, six of them by a Government jet, while Mr Martin has travelled 12 times, seven times by Government jet, in that period.
The destination of many of their flights had been airports close to their constituency homes.
The schedule also shows that a number of Ministers, notably former taoiseach Bertie Ahern; Mr Martin; Ms Coughlan and Mr O’Dea were either picked up or dropped off (or both) by the Government jet at airports close to their homes when travelling abroad.
Mr Martin boarded or disembarked at Cork or Shannon 32 times, the same number of times that Donegal-based Ms Coughlan was picked up or dropped off at Knock or Derry.
Both Ministers have held portfolios which require frequent travel abroad.
In the same period, Mr Ahern used Dublin airport 29 times when using Government jets, despite the fact that the jet originated from Baldonnel, less than 20 kilometres away.
The jet travelled to Shannon airport 10 times to pick-up or drop off Mr O’Dea. The same Minister was the most frequent user of helicopters in 2008, with nine trips between Limerick and Dublin.
Others who used the Government’s fixed-wing aircraft for internal flights were the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Martin Cullen who flew to and from his Waterford constituency nine times.
His predecessor in the department, John O’Donoghue, used Government aircraft to fly to his constituency in Kerry three times in the first six months of 2007.
One of the least frequent users of the service has been Brian Cowen, who took no internal flights when minister for finance and has only taken one jet trip wholly within the State since becoming Taoiseach.
Minister for Social Affairs Mary Hanafin and Minister for Rural Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív have also rarely availed of internal flights on Government aircraft.
Mr Ring said the use of jets and helicopters by Ministers to fly to Galway or Sligo or Waterford was intolerable.
“It’s not on. All the Ministers have a State car and two drivers. That’s why they are there. There’s no need for them to take flights inside the country. It’s unacceptable and it’s outrageous,” Mr Ring added.
“You have the ludicrous situation where the State car goes down the country or comes back from a place empty because the Minister is travelling by jet or by helicopter.”
Mr O’Dea’s spokeswoman said he had cut down on the use of the helicopter and had not used it at all in 2009.
The spokeswoman added that impossibly tight schedules had necessitated the use of the helicopter from Limerick in the past or the diversion of the Government jet to Shannon when he was travelling abroad.
A spokesman for Ms Harney said: “The ministerial travel arrangements are arranged by the Department of Health and are appropriate to the needs of the relevant public engagements involved.”
All the costs in the schedule are calculated only for the period in which the Minister is on board and not for when the aircraft is returning to its base at Baldonnel or flying out from the Air Corps headquarters to Ireland or abroad to collect a Minister.
The McCarthy report has recommended that the commercial cost of Government aircraft be charged to departments as a means of discouraging excessive use of this form of air travel.
The number of internal flights on the Government jets and other aircraft has dropped significantly in 2009, with only three internal flights on either of the two Government jets.
The Beechcraft is no longer in service and will not be replaced in the short term.
