Vol. 574 No. 1
210 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Defence the number of internal ministerial flights since the beginning of the Government's term of office using Air Corps equipment; the purpose of each trip; the cost of each trip; the departure point of each trip; the destination of each trip; the identity of each Minister on each trip; the aircraft used in each trip; and the number of Air Corps personnel used in each trip. [26214/03]
211 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Defence the number of external ministerial flights since the beginning of the Government's term of office using Air Corps equipment; the purpose of each trip; the cost of each trip; the departure point of each trip; the destination of each trip; the identity of each Minister on each trip; the aircraft used in each trip; and the number of Air Corps personnel used in each trip. [26215/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 210 and 211 together.
While the detailed log books for each Air Corps aircraft would show the various flights undertaken by it, the Air Corps only compiles statistical records on the basis of the number of missions conducted by each aircraft annually. Each mission may consist of a number of flights, for example, Baldonnel-New York-Washington-Shannon-Baldonnel would be counted as one mission but obviously involves a number of flights. Extracting the details of each flight from the log books in respect of all missions undertaken by the aircraft would require an inordinate amount of time and expense.
The GIV is the primary MATS aircraft but from time to time additional aircraft are used to back this service up when the GIV is unavailable for operational or technical reasons. The following table outlines the number of ministerial air transport, MATS, missions on each Air Corps aircraft for the period 6 June, 2002 to 31 October 2003 broken down between internal – on island of Ireland – and external flights – overseas.
|
Aircraft |
InternalMissions |
ExternalMissions |
|
GIV |
21.00 |
109.00 |
|
Beechcraft |
40.00 |
3.00 |
|
CASA |
7.00 |
2.00 |
|
Helicopter (Dauphin & Alouette) |
12.00 |
0.00 |
