Risk of Taoiseach getting 'stuck' overseas due to 'intolerable' Government jet

Emails have revealled there was now an almost 'generalised unavailability' of the Learjet because of the frequent breakdowns it has had. File picture: Óglaigh na hÉireann

Senior officials warned that reliability issues afflicting the Government’s ailing jet had become “intolerable”, with the risk of Taoiseach Micheál Martin getting “stuck” overseas for an extended period.

The €8m Learjet has been repeatedly out of service over the past year and a half with the Department of Defence earlier this year told to hire a charter plane for a trip to Paris and London by the Taoiseach and a delegation.

In internal emails, the Department of the Taoiseach said the hiring of that executive jet — understood to have cost a five-figure sum — had been done because there was no other choice.

An email from assistant secretary to the Government Dermot Woods to senior colleagues said: “I must emphasise the strong reluctance with which this course of action is taken, particularly given the additional costs that are entailed, but the recent experiences have made the MATS [Ministerial Air Transport] situation intolerable.

The Taoiseach's essential travel to and from Berlin and Brussels recently put this matter into very stark relief again and it is my strong view that things can't be allowed to continue as they are.” 

The email, which was sent to then secretary general Martin Fraser and the now secretary general John Callinan, said arranging Mr Martin’s travel plans through normal scheduled flights was seldom a viable option.

Mr Woods wrote: “The Taoiseach's travel requirements cannot readily be accommodated by scheduled flights on all occasions given the level of his domestic parliamentary and other official obligations, the urgent nature of the international requirements and the need to maximise the value of those international events.” 

The senior civil servant also referred to an incident in late February where the Taoiseach ended up ‘stranded’ in Brussels after an Air Corps plane went out of service at the 11th hour.

During that trip, the Learjet was already unavailable, so a CASA maritime patrol aircraft was drafted in instead. And while the outward leg passed without a hitch, the CASA plane developed a technical problem and was unable to fulfil the return journey.

A third plane — a smaller PC-12, which because of its single-engine is not recommended for use by either the Taoiseach or the president — had to be dispatched instead.

Learjet's 'generalised unavailability'

Mr Woods wrote: “We cannot allow a situation to persist where the Taoiseach either cannot travel to meetings as organised or gets 'stuck' for any extended period overseas or has to seek out extended travel work-arounds due to the unreliability of the Ministerial Air Transport option (as happened most recently in Brussels on 25 February).” 

He said there was now an almost “generalised unavailability” of the Learjet because of its 17 years of operation, its condition, and the frequent breakdowns it has had.

Other sections of the email looking at future options for ministerial air transport have been redacted, including discussions over replacing the jet or for further charter flights.

Purchase of a new Government jet is, however, seen as explosive politically according to sources, particularly during the cost-of-living crisis.

Instead, the Department of Defence is moving towards a model of hiring private jets as needed as a short-term solution to replace the Learjet.

The Department of the Taoiseach emails about the jet had originally been withheld under Freedom of Information and were only released following an appeal to the Information Commissioner.