Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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503. To ask the Minister for Defence if he will provide a detailed breakdown of the total use and total cost per annum of the Government jet in 2011, 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014. [17348/14]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Details of usage by Government of the Ministerial Air Transport Service (MATS) for 2011, 2012, 2013 and up to the end of March 2014 are set out in the tabular statement below. As stated in my answer to your Parliamentary Question of 25 June 2013, in line with a commitment made in the Programme for Government, information relating to the MATS is now published on my Department's website and is updated on a monthly basis.

In relation to the costs, my 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:

(a) The variable cost, which comprises costs incurred only when the aircraft is flown including maintenance, fuel and support services i.e. it does not include costs associated with having the aircraft; and

(b) The total cost, which comprises the variable cost plus the fixed cost associated with having the aircraft. The latter comprises personnel costs and depreciation.

These average hourly costs, per each aircraft type deployed for MATS missions in the period covered by your question, are set out in the tables below. For clarity, an additional average fixed cost per hour column has been included in the tables below showing the cost associated with having the aircraft. These costs will be the same regardless of how frequently the aircraft is flown.

These average hourly rates were updated and published in 2013 (the previous revisions were in 2009 and 2011) to reflect changes in the elements used to calculate the hourly rates, such as fuel costs, personnel costs, depreciation, support costs and flying hours.

Costs per flying hour published in 2013:

Costs per flying hour published in 2011: