Cost Of Use Of Government Jet Hits Almost Half A Million So Far This Year

It cost nearly 500,000 euro to send the Taoiseach and government ministers around the world on private aircraft, in the first eight months of this year.

Last year the total cost of flights on these aircraft for the Taoiseach and other ministers was over 222,000 euro.
However, in the first eight months of this year, that increased to over 482,000 - involving 32 flights.
The most expensive journey this year was Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe's trip to Greece and Cyprus in July, at a cost of about 47,000 euro.
The Department of Finance says this partly related to his role as president of the Eurogroup.
The Department of Defence says the level of flights to date this year is in keeping with the years before the Covid pandemic.