Anger as Government goes ahead on €50m jets

THE Government decision to press ahead with its plans to buy two new executive jets came under renewed fire last night.

As the deadline for the receipt of tenders for the luxury aircraft passed at noon yesterday, opposition parties said that at a time when services were being cut back, the Government was not getting its spending priorities right.

The purchase of a large corporate jet with more than 40 seats and a smaller jet with more than seven seats could end up costing the taxpayer more than €50 million, according to aviation industry analysts.

The Government says the aircraft are needed urgently due to the large number of meetings which ministers will have to attend across Europe in the run-up to and during Ireland’s EU Presidency next year.

Confirming that a number of offers had been received by the deadline, a Department of Defence spokesman said the plan was still to buy or lease the aircraft within the next six weeks and have them available by October 1.

“It is going ahead as the Government decision has been taken,” the spokesman said.

But Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton said with health and education services being cut severely, this was not an appropriate time to be buying the jets.

The purchase of the aircraft was not a high priority when there was a retrenchment of spending on seriously needed infrastructure, and vital areas of expenditure were bound to suffer as a result, he added.

“Need has to be a real test. In real terms, someone else will taking a rear seat in order to let the ministers and their jets come out in front,” he said.

Labour finance spokesperson Joan Burton said there had to be cheaper ways of providing the transport. In the coming years, the scale of the EU Presidency will decrease, with most meetings taking place in Brussels, so there will be far less travelling on routes without a regular airline service, she said.

While people understand the country has to be represented abroad, there was a style of luxury associated with this Government, Ms Burton said.

“It just leaves people feeling cheated. The Government tends to go for the Rolls Royce rather than the economy model,” she said.

Figures released by the Minister for Defence Michael Smith this week shows the existing Government jet, the Gulfstream IV, was used on 134 trips by ministers last year.

The Department of Defence said a number of tender documents has been received for consideration by yesterday.

The documents received were opened and stamped by department officials yesterday afternoon and will be examined by a panel of experts from the Departments of the Taoiseach, Finance, Defence and the Air Corps. The money for the two aircraft will come from central exchequer funds.

Companies who have announced they are to pitch for the deal include Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier and NetJets. The Government is expected to be lobbied intensely by both the companies themselves and their countries’ Ambassadors in Dublin.