SHORT-HOP journeys on board the government's two jets to collect ministers from their home airports have cost in excess of €50,000 this year.

The practice, which has come in for criticism in the Dáil, has been defended by Taoiseach Brian Cowen, who said it was "petty" to expect ministers to do anything else.

However, the cost of collecting ministers at an airport nearer their home rather than them driving to Air Corps home base in Baldonnell aerodrome, Dublin, is proving considerable, the Sunday Tribune has established.

So far this year, nine separate trips have been made in which the Gulfstream IV first had to travel to a local airport to pick up a member of the cabinet.

In January of this year, the jet was requisitioned to carry 10 ministers to a meeting in Derry. It left Baldonnel before travelling north of the border.

It then returned to Dublin, then took off for Cork where members of the cabinet were dropped off. The flight then returned to Dublin.

The total flight cost was €14,200, based on the Defence Forces' own hourly flying costs of €7,100.

In February, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin travelled to the Middle East. On both legs of the €121,883 journey the plane travelled to Cork to facilitate the minister.

Assuming the two Cork legs took around an hour, the estimated cost to the taxpayer of the trip was €7,100.

Later that month, Martin again headed off, this time to the US, Mexico and Cuba. En route, he was collected at Cork airport and, on the way back, he was again dropped close to his home by the Gulfstream, which then travelled on to Baldonnel.

An Air Corps source said: "The costs involved in this are very significant because it is obviously in take-off and landing that most fuel is used and most wear and tear occurs.

"It would be more econ­omical for the minister to land in the Gulfstream in Baldonnel and then take a helicopter back to Cork, if travel time was considered a major issue."

In February, Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea was collected and dropped off by the jet in Shannon on both legs of his journey to visit troops in Chad.

In March, Michaél Martin and Taoiseach Brian owen travelled together to the United States for St Patrick's Day celebrations.

On the return leg, they reached a compromise, landing at Shannon before the jet headed back to Baldonnel.

In April, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan was picked up in Knock before a trip to Saudi Arabia. It is estimated that at least €7,100 of the €133,716 spent on the journey to the Middle East was taken up in flying back and forth to Co Mayo.

Ministers using the government's second plane, a Learjet, are also routinely collected at their home airports before heading off to their final destination. The Learjet costs €2,100 an hour to use.

Helicopters have also been used to pick up various ministers near their homes. During trips this year, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern was collected at Dundalk barracks while Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey boarded a helicopter at the Knightsbrook hotel in Trim, Co Meath.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen has defended the practice in the Dáil. "If people are using the helicopter for official business and it is going back to base, then people can be dropped home – unless we insist that people return to the base and wait for a car to bring them back home. We can get quite petty about it," he said.