THE Department of Defence says there are no plans to sell one of the government's two jets despite a collapse in the amount of travel undertaken.

The two airplanes were used on just 28 occasions in the first three months of the year, while the practice of using other aircraft and helicopters appears to have been abandoned altogether.

Records released by the department show the Gulfstream IV has been used 11 times since New Year's Day.

The Learjet, which is generally used for shorter journeys to Europe, has been put to use 17 times, primarily for business in Brussels.

The two jets – a €7,890 per hour Gulfstream IV and a €2,950 per hour Learjet – have been required at the same time on four occasions this year.

Three of those trips coincided with the St Patrick's Day festival when the Taoiseach Brian Cowen and the Minster for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin commandeered the Gulfstream for six days in the US.

The government has amassed significant bills for executive travel with an estimated €611,140 spent on flying various ministers abroad.

The Gulfstream IV has been in the air for almost 60 hours over the past three months at a total cost to the taxpayer of €470,770.

The Learjet has flown for 47.5 hours at an estimated cost of €140,370.

Some of the individual trips have also proved incredibly expensive with journeys to Egypt and America putting a particular burden on the taxpayer.

In February, foreign affairs minister Micheál Martin made a trip to Cairo and Sinai, where the airplane was in use for 700 minutes.

The estimated cost of that trip was €92,050, many multiples of what it would have cost to make the trip by scheduled airline.

In March, Cowen and Martin travelled to the US with the government jet, stopping off in Chicago, California and Washington DC. The Gulfstream was in use for 1,420 minutes – the equivalent of almost a day's flying time – at an estimated cost of €186,730.

Had they taken an ordinary flight, even using business class tickets, it would have proven far less expensive.

The jets are also being used for short hops to collect ministers at locations that are more convenient to their family homes.

On four occasions, Air Corps pilots flew the Gulfstream IV from Baldonnel to Cork to pick up Micheál Martin. Similarly, the Learjet was twice sent to pick up then enterprise minister Mary Coughlan in Derry, which is close to her home in Co Donegal.

The Department of Defence said both planes would be kept: "There are no plans at present to dispose of the GIV or the Learjet 45, and any future decision in this regard is a matter for government."