Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have to comment on the Government jet because everyone seems to be fixated on it today. It is poor value for money to think that we only realised €471,000, particularly in view of the fact that it originally cost €48 million. It is poor management to say that it was sold to the one buyer left. It was stripped down in Savannah and the only option was to sell it to one person, but that does not seem right to me. It was not value for money. If the jet had been repaired at whatever cost and put back into commission, would it have realised more money? As my colleague said, it is now being used for commercial purposes, so I presume they would not have spent the money unless it was of commercial value. Did taxpayers here lose money as a result of the jet not being repaired and then sold off? If so, we could have had several different bidders from all over the world.