Government jet flies empty to keep skills

Justice Minister Alan Shatter has defended flying government jets without passengers so that pilots can maintain training standards.

Mr Shatter, whose portfolio also covers defence, would not be drawn on the issue of whether the flights were empty because ministers were taking commercial aircraft to overseas meetings as they did not want the bad publicity of being seen to “travel in luxury”.

“There is an obligation on the Air Corps to have training flights,” a spokesperson for Mr Shatter said regarding the flights, which are estimated to cost taxpayers more than €3,000 an hour.