Taoiseach Micheál Martin has defended that he is the only Fianna Fáil cabinet member to use business class flights, saying “I work a full day before boarding a plane”.
r Martin’s Fianna Fáil cabinet colleagues all said they don’t do business when they travel abroad for state visits.
Health Minister Stephen and Agriculture Secretary Charlie McConalogue even flew economy class to an international expo in Dubai, where Green Party deputy leader Catherine Martin traveled in a business class seat.
Business class flights are responsible for at least three times more CO2 emissions than economy, according to research by the World Bank.
The Taoiseach said he is working hard in his role as the country’s leader in defending its use of business class flights.
“I’ll be very honest with you, I work all day before getting on a plane. I work on the plane and I work when I get off the plane. Frontal. That’s what I should do. That’s my duty and that’s it,” he said.
Martin said it will be seen “in the fullness of time” that the government has made “fundamental changes in the area of climate change”.
Meanwhile, Malcolm Noonan, the Green Party’s deputy secretary, weighed in on Catherine Martin, saying he believed his party colleague’s additional personal carbon emissions were worth it because of her tourism and arts portfolio.
“If you refer specifically to the tourism and arts portfolio, these are important portfolios from which Ireland benefits immensely in terms of representation abroad.
“I think sometimes it’s important that you may need to be in a position to do work while traveling to events,” said the longtime environmentalist in Ms Martin’s defense.
Rebel Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan also declined to condemn Ms. Martin’s business class jet-setting as her cabinet colleagues flew economy to the same destinations.
‘No one is a saint. And I wouldn’t expect anyone to be a saint,” said Mrs. Hourigan.
“I don’t try to be better than anyone. I do have a car, but I try not to drive too much. People will use transportation for their personal needs,” she said.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, who asked if the business-class squabble was a case of “do as I preach, not as I do” by his party, said it shouldn’t be about what an individual did. Instead, he emphasized the responsibility of airlines,
Everyone had to “make this climate leap,” he said, adding that personalization of planetary issues could “get in trouble.”
He added: “I’m really glad I’m not a tourism minister because you might literally be running from one meeting to the next when you arrive as a tourism minister in a place like Dubai.”
Speaking that two Fianna Fáil economy class ministers had traveled to the same Dubai Expo, Mr Ryan said: “What we want to do is change the system so it saves us all because we have to take action.
“I met Aer Lingus and Ryanair yesterday. One of the most important things we’re talking about is how to switch to sustainable fuels to make aviation a part of this change. No sector gets a way out. Aviation will have to do just as much as anyone else. They understand that.”
When asked whether the business class flights suggested the Green Party’s hypocrisy, Mr Ryan said: “I’m not going to be precise about who can or cannot do what.
“There are circumstances in which I think it is appropriate that you want to be able to work from the start, that’s how it often works as a minister.”