Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 28 Mar 2001

Vol. 533 No. 4

Written Answers. - Ministerial Air Travel.

Paul Bradford

Question:

32 Mr. Bradford asked the Minister for Defence the aircraft which have been hired for ministerial use when the Government jet has been unavailable; the name of the company which supplied such aircraft; the type of aircraft involved; the Minister who travelled and the purpose of each such trip during the lifetime of this Government; and the costs involved in each such trip. [9107/01]

Paul Connaughton

Question:

57 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Defence the number of occasions during the present Government's term of office in which an aircraft has been chartered to fly a Government Minister to or from a foreign destination; the purpose of the visit to each such foreign destination; the persons who accompanied the Minister on any such trip; the cost of the charter in each case; and the reason neither the Government jet nor flights with a major commercial airline were not used. [8839/01]

Minister for Defence (Mr. M. Smith): I propose to take Questions Nos. 32 and 57 together.

The position is that the ministerial air transport service is operated by the Air Corps using the Gulfstream IV executive jet, which was leased for this purpose in 1991. The Beech King Air turboprop aircraft had been used as a back-up aircraft to the Gulfstream. However, over the past decade significant changes have developed in the needs of the service.

The business of the European Union itself has grown by an unprecedented degree both in the size of its market and in the depth and range of its activities. These changes have increased significantly the travel requirements of Government Ministers and officials.

There is an ongoing requirement for the Government to maintain a very active involvement both bilaterally, and through the ELT and multilateral bodies like the United Nations, in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas so as to build Ireland's political and economic relations with countries from these regions. This requirement also involves substantial air travel by Government Ministers.

Owing to its limited capacity range and endurance the Beech King Air aircraft could only provide a limited service and could no longer be regarded as an adequate alternative to the Gulfstream IV aircraft. Therefore, in situations where the Gulfstream IV aircraft was unavailable for any reason it became necessary to avail of an air taxi service. Details of such occasions since June 1997 are shown in the form of a tabular statement which I propose to circulate with my reply.

I have included passenger numbers only as the composition of the Ministerial group is a matter for each individual Department.

In this connection my Department is responsible for the hire of air taxis for all Government Ministers. The use of air taxis must be cleared in advance by each individual Minister with the Taoiseach. It is only when this approval has been obtained that the request is transmitted to my Department to hire the required aircraft. Where time permits the air taxi service is acquired through a tender competition. Otherwise a rotation system is used among the Irish providers of air taxi services. The question of the use of commercial airlines is a mater for the requesting Department itself.

Air Taxi – 1997-2001

Year	Company	Aircraft	Minister+Passengers	Trip	Cost£IR	Gulfstream IVNon-use
1997	Westair AviationCorporate Jet CentreShannon AirportCo. Clare.	HS125	Taoiseach+7	Dublin-Luxembourg-Dublin	5,600	On maintenance
1998	Westair	HS125	TaoiseachFinance (return only)	Dublin-Brussels-Dublin	6,100	Unserviceable
1999	Club TravelCorporate30 Lr Abbey StreetDublin 1.	Shorts 360Turbo prop jet	Taoiseach's Entourage(number not known)	Beirut-Tel Aviv	18,300	Local flightFor Taoiseach's entourage
Year	Company	Aircraft	Minister+Passengers	Trip	Cost£IR	Gulfstream IVNon-use
	Westair Aviation.	HS 125	Taoiseach+7	Dublin-Copehagen-Dublin	7,500	In use by Tánaiste
	Atron18 Sandyford OfficePark, Dublin 18.	Falcon 50	President+7	Dublin-Jordan-Florence-Dublin	62,900	In use by Tánaiste
	Aviation ProjectConsultantsStrand Road,SandymountDublin 4.	HS125HS125	Taoiseach+4Taoiseach+3	Dublin-Paris-DublinDublin-Hague-Dublin	8,40011,800	UnserviceableUnserviceable
	Atron	HS125	Taoiseach+5	Dublin-Bonn-Dublin	10,600	Unserviceable
	Aviation ProjectConsultants	Falcon 20	Taoiseach+5	Dublin-NortholtBelfast-Dublin	21,600	In use by Tánaiste
	Atron	Falcon 900	Tánaiste+4	Dublin-Tel Aviv-Dublin	52,800	On scheduled maintenance
	Atron	HS125	Taoiseach+7	Dublin-Northolt-Dublin	6,000	On scheduled maintance
	Air Harrods LtdStanstead AriportEssex, England.	Falcon 50	Taoiseach+5	Dublin-Mostar-Dublin	30,900	On scheduled maintaince
	Air Harrods	Falcon 50	Finance+7	Dublin-Turkuu-Dublin	32,100	On Scheduled maintenance
	Atron	Falcon 900	Taoiseach+9	Dublin-Moscow-St. Petersburgh-Dublin	80,600	On scheduled maintenance
2000	Atron	Falcon 900	Taoiseach+2 (Belfast)+11 Cornwall	Dublin-Belfast-Dublin-Cornwall-Dublin	37,400	Unserviceable
		Falcon 50	Taoiseach+4 Northolt+5 Dublin	Dublin-Northolt-Dublin	20,000	Unserviceable
		Falcon 50	Min. Foreign Affairs+3 Belfast+5 Azores	Dublin-Belfast-Azores-Dublin	30,800	On Standby for Northern talks
		Falcon 900B	Taoiseach+7	Dublin-Northolt-Dublin	27,100	In use by Tánaiste
		Falcon 900	Tánaiste+5	Prague-Dublin	28,700	Unable to carry out mission owing to delay on earlier flight.
		Challenger604	Tánaiste+5	Warsaw-Dublin	28,500	Held up in Paris owing to ATC strike
		Cessna 340	Taoiseach+4	Dublin-Galway-Dublin	1,400	Unable to land in Galway.
		HS 125	Tánaiste +2Finance +4	Hanover-DublinDublin-Luxembourg	17,800	Unserviceable owing to accident in Baldonnel.
		HS125	Finance +4	Luxembourg Dublin	16,900	Unserviceable Owing to accidentin Baldonnel.
		HS125	Taoiseach	Dublin-Glasgow-London	16,900	Unserviceable
			+7 Glasgow+2 London			Owing to accidentin Baldonnel.
		Citation	Agriculture	Paris-Luxembourg	14,000	Unserviceable
		Bravo	+3 Luxembourg	Dublin-Cork		owing to accident
			+5 Dublin			in Baldonnel.
		Citation	Tánaiste	Dublin-Cork-Dublin	14,000	Unserviceable
		Bravo	+3			owing to accidentin Baldonnel.
2000	Atron	HS125	Justice +44 only forDublin	Dublin-Belfast-Kerry-Dublin	8,400	Unserviceableowing to accidentin Baldonnel.
		Citation I	Tánaiste+2	Sligo-Galway-Cork-Dublin	7,200	Unserviceableowing to accidentin Baldonnel.
		HS125	President +4	Dublin-Belfast-Dublin	7,500	Unserviceableowing to accidentin Baldonnel.
		HS125	Tánaiste +2Latecancellation	Baldonnel-KnockKnock-Baldonnel	3,000	Unserviceableowing to accidentin Baldonnel.
		HS125	Taoiseach+7	Dublin-London-Dublin	10,000	Unserviceableowing to accidentin Baldonnel.
Year	Company	Aircraft	Minister+Passengers	Trip	Cost£IR	Gulfstream IVNon-use
		HS125	Agriculture+2 Cork+2 Paris	Dublin-Cork-Paris	12,500	Unserviceableowing to accidentin Baldonnel.
		Falcon 10	Justice	Luxembourg-Dublin	10,600	Unserviceableowing to accidentin Baldonnel.
		Citation I	Tánaiste+2	Dublin-Shannon-Dublin	5,500	Unserviceableowing to accidentin Baldonnel.
		Falcon 20	Taoiseach+7	Dublin-Northolt-Knock-Dublin	18,600	Unserviceableowing to accidentin Baldonnel.
		Challenger600	Taoiseach+8 (Northolt)+6 (Zagreb)+8 (Dublin)	Dublin-Northolt-Zagreb-Dublin	54,500	In use by President
	Air PartnerCrawleyWest SusexEngland	Dunier 328	President (number not known)	Sarajevo-Pristina-Sarajevo	31,700	Local flight GIV unable to accommodate all persons travelling
	Atron	Falcon 50	Agriculture+1	Brussels-Cairo	37,100	In use by Tánaiste
2000	Atron	Falcon 900	Taoiseach+6	Dublin-Rome-Dublin	51,000	On scheduled maintenance
		Falcon 900B	Taoiseach+13	Dublin-Belfast-Dublin	26,000	In use by Tánaiste
		BeechkingAir 200	Agriculture+6	Brussels-Shannon	8,800	Grounded by snow
	Westair Aviation	HS125	Foreign Affairs+3	Berlin-Dublin	11,300	In use by Tánaiste
	Aviation ProjectConsultants	Challenger604	Foreign Affairs	Nice-Washington	17,200(standbycharge)	Gulfstream IV used for trip