Dempsey under pressure to explain €100k trip

The Transport Minister Noel Dempsey is under pressure to explain his recent use of the Government jet and state car in a trip which cost taxpayers €100,000.

Mr Dempsey flew to Derry Airport on the gulfstream jet to speak at the Magill Summer School in Donegal.

Despite him taking the flight, his state car and driver had to be despatched to Derry Airport to ferry the Minister to Glenties.

Minister Dempsey overnighted in Donegal before returning to Derry the next day and flying on the Government jet to London.

The Minister said the methods of transport he used were necessary as he had to attend to "urgent Government business" in London.

A Department of Transport said that the €100,000 estimate was "wildly inaccurate", and that Minister Dempsey's UK meeting involved a potentially 'very significant investment' in Ireland and there were no commercial flights from Derry, Donegal, Belfast, Sligo or Dublin that would get him to London in time for his 7.15am meeting.