Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I was appointed Taoiseach on 7 May 2008. Deputy Kenny referred to a flight that took place on 3 February 2008. I had no involvement in the matter. That is the first point.

The second point is that in my reply to Deputy Kenny I said that any Taoiseach of the day provides the authorisation to use the Government jet for ministerial visits abroad. As Deputy Kenny knows ministerial air transport services are needed for the proper conduct of Government business. When the Deputy raised a query about a technical issue that arose while Air Corps personnel went from one airport to another, I made the point that operational matters and details have to be taken up with the Department of Defence. The Taoiseach is not involved in any change of arrangements that take place for whatever technical reasons that arise on flights. If Deputy Kenny does not know that, he should know it. It is absurd to indicate that people would have to ring my office at 3 a.m. to find out whether they can move from one airport to another. That does not happen. Decisions and operational responsibilities are taken by the flight personnel themselves. Answers to any queries on the matter can be directly obtained from the Department of Defence. For the record, I did not hold the office of Taoiseach at the time but that is not to say any issue arises either.

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