Government travel has yet to be affected by the downturn, according to figures just released which show that more than €1.29m has been spent already this year on official jets and helicopters.

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has been among the biggest spenders: a lengthy flight on a trade mission to the Middle East cost the taxpayer €133,716.

The Gulfstream IV was in the air for nearly 19 hours, with each hour costing €7,100. Coughlan and her travelling entourage made stop-offs in the Saudi Arabian cities of Riyadh and Jeddah and the Qatari capital Doha.

On both legs of the journey, the Air Corps pilots first had to fly the Gulfstream in the opposite direction to Knock in Co Mayo to pick up the Tánaiste nearer her home in Donegal.

The travel figures – made available by the Department of Defence – reveal that the Department of the Taoiseach has sanctioned €1.05m worth of travel on the Gulfstream IV jet in the first five months of the year.

A further €213,150 was spent on travelling aboard the Learjet, the government's
second executive airplane, which is used for shorter trips.

Ministers and junior ministers also made frequent use of Air Corps helicopters at a cost of €23,830.

The vast majority of the government jet bill came about from the use of the Gulfstream and five lengthy flights, each costing more than €100,000.

In February, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin travelled to a number of cities in the Middle East, including Damascus, Beirut, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai.

The jet, which picked him up and dropped him off at Cork airport, was in the air for over 17 hours at a cost to the taxpayer of €121,883.

Later that month, the foreign affairs minister was off again, this time to the North American cities of Washington DC, Mexico City and Havana, with a stop-off at Newfoundland on the way back. That flight proved the most expensive of the year – €160,341 for more than 22 hours in the air.