Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 564: To ask the Minister for Defence the distance he travelled with a view to determining his carbon footprint, by air using commercial airline, the Government jet and helicopter in the last year for which figures are available and the distance for all Government Departments in relation to the Government jet and helicopter; and if he will make a statement on the matter [4020/07]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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I made no official journeys by commercial airline in 2006.

With regard to distance travelled by members of the Government on Air Corps aircraft in 2006, I am advised that the Air Corps does not use this method to calculate aircraft utilisation. Instead, aircraft usage is recorded as hours flown. In order to calculate an estimate of air miles flown from hours flown, it is necessary to multiply the hours flown by the average aircraft speed. The average speed of the Air Corps aircraft used in provision of the Ministerial Air Transport Service is set out in the following table.

A schedule setting out the journeys undertaken by each member of Government, including hours flown, on all Air Corps aircraft in 2006 follows.