Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I believe it is. Many countries have different approaches in getting Ministers and Prime Ministers - in our case the Taoiseach - to where they need to be. We have changed the approach to the use of the Government jet. No Minister can use it without getting the permission of the Taoiseach. Ministers travel on commercial airlines for most of the travel they need to undertake. It is only in exceptional circumstances that the jet is used. There are certain times when it is necessary, but most of the time Ministers use commercial airlines. Since last summer we have been operating with one shorter range jet which does not have the capacity to engage in transatlantic travel. We will work away on that basis for the foreseeable future. I do not expect any announcement or decision on the purchase of a new Government jet, which is unlikely, given the budgetary constraints that continue.

The Air Corps does a lot more than fly Ministers or the Taoiseach around. In 2014 it completed 18 emergency inter-hospital air ambulance missions. It also completes surveillance work in offshore fisheries and search and rescue missions. There is much more in the fleet than just the Government jet. It was very rare that both Government jets were used at the same time. It would have happened the odd time such as for the St. Patrick's Day celebrations when there would have been Ministers all over the world. In the case of needing to get the Taoiseach somewhere quickly because of an emergency, the use of air taxis is always possible. I suspect, however, that would only happen in the case of an emergency.

Not much has changed in the training hours required to be undertaken by Air Corps pilots. It must be remembered that this subhead also covers presidential travel. We have been managing with one smaller aircraft. I accept that this is not ideal at times, given the number of people who may need to travel with the Taoiseach or the President. However, it has not caused significant problems.