The tendering process is under way for the replacement of the Government jet, the Taoiseach has confirmed in the Dáil. Mr Ahern said it was "a good time to go to the market".
He said the current system of the Gulfstream IV jet and the seven-seat Beechcraft aeroplane was "inefficient".
Groups "are always split and people have to travel the previous night when the whole group could travel in the morning. We should be able to carry journalists as every other country does and they would pay for that. That would be far more efficient and effective."
Mr Ahern said reports about jacuzzis and bars were "nonsense", and "I only want to get from A to B in a reasonable amount of time and in one piece".
He was replying to the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, who claimed the Taoiseach was creating the impression that the Gulfstream jet was a "clapped out" aircraft in danger or coming down over Lambay Island.
Department of Defence statistics showed that it was available for use on 134 of the 135 occasions when it was sought last year.
"Why create the impression that there is something defective about the jet", that the Taoiseach was "on the tarmac while blokes where under the Gulfstream with spanners trying to fix it before you got on board".
The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, said the Department of Defence appeared to have "cancelled a whole range of contracts relating to other important elements of the Defence Forces and this is the only contract that will be signed". The Government should lease a number of planes.
Mr Ahern acknowledged "it is not a good time to spend enormous amounts of money. However, if we can get a good deal on a suitable replacement for the Gulfstream and Beechcraft we should go ahead."
There were many possible financing arrangements, and "we should be able to get a good deal".
He added: "From what I have heard about the Gulfstream, it is not efficient. There are problems of refuelling and maintenance."
He added: "I am told by the powers that be that this is a good time to get a replacement because prices and oversupply in the aviation market - both in second-hand and new aircraft - should allow us to get a good deal."
Green party leader Mr Trevor Sargent said aviation engineers in north Dublin had told him that Gulfstream jets had an average life span of 40 years, and the Government one had only the equivalent of 10,000 miles, what most Aer Lingus jets did in two years. The jet was relatively new.
Mr Ahern said the same experts had told him that the mileage on the Gulfstream "is one of the highest of that type in the world".
Mr Joe Higgins (Socialist, Dublin West) questioned how the Taoiseach could justify spending between €50 million and €100 million on a jet for a State with a population of four million people, "when there are scheduled airlines flying to virtually every corner of Europe to which any Minister might possibly want to go".
Mr Ahern said the suggestion that Ministers "are floating around the world with their bags on their backs is even greater nonsense than he normally speaks in this House".
