Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 520: To ask the Minister for Defence if he will provide in tabular form details of the usage of the Government jet since March 2011 to date; to include the Minister, the country visited, the event attended, and the cost to the State of each journey. [28227/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Ministerial Air Transport Service (MATS) is primarily provided by the Gulfstream IV and Learjet 45 aircraft, which were specifically acquired for that purpose. The CASA maritime patrol aircraft have been used infrequently for Ministerial Air Transport missions where no MATS aircraft has been available for operational or technical reasons.

Details of usage of the Ministerial Air Transport Service from 9 March 2011 to date in 2012 are set out in the tabular statement below, and include details of the requesting Minister(s), dates of travel, mission route and Ministerial time on board. The purpose of each trip is a matter for the requesting Department and is not included in the statement. The details provided relate to requests from Government Ministers that have been approved by the Taoiseach.

The Department follows the normal practice in the aviation business of costing aircraft by reference to the cost per flying hour under each of two headings:

· The direct cost, which includes costs which are additional to those associated with having the aircraft and which only arise when the aircraft is flown including maintenance, fuel and support services such as catering costs, cleaning services and airport handling charges.

· The total cost, which is the direct cost plus the costs associated with having the aircraft including depreciation and personnel costs.

Costs in 2011/12:

These are average costs which take a number of variables into account. It is not possible to assign an exact cost to any particular mission.