Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

In accordance with the roles assigned to them in the White Paper on Defence, the Air Corps is committed to providing support to the civil authorities including Government agencies such as the National Park & Wildlife Service, NPWS, which is the agency responsible for monitoring activity on raised bog special areas of conservation.

As part of the efforts to ensure Ireland's compliance with the EU ban on turf cutting in special areas of conservation, the NPWS submitted a request to the Department of Defence seeking the transport of NPWS personnel in Air Corps aircraft to monitor these areas.

The Department of Defence follows the normal practice in the aviation business of costing aircraft by reference to the cost per flying hour. For these missions, the Cessna aircraft has been used and the average hourly direct cost of operating this aircraft which include fuel and maintenance costs is €185. The cost to date in 2012 of providing assistance to the NPWS is €13,875 based on approximately 75 hours of flying time.

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