Ryanair, Europeå‘s largest low fares airline today (22nd April 02) revealed that Irish Civil Servants are massively squandering taxpayers money by spending less than 1% of their budget travelling with Ryanair. Official statistics from Government Departments for the calendar year 2001 reveal that more than å€4.5m was spent on civil servantså’ air travel but less than 1% or just å€23,737 was spent with Ryanair. This represents a massive overspend and waste of taxpayers money on the part of Civil Servants.

Commenting on the statistics today, Ryanair’s Commercial Director, Michael Cawley said:

“This waste of taxpayers money is a scandal. Fat cat Civil Servants choose to fly with high fare airlines when cheaper, and more efficient, more on time and better frequency services are available. Government officials are wasting hard-earned taxpayers money on a commodity which they could buy for a fraction of the cost. By spending less than 1% of their budget with Ryanair they are blatantly choosing more expensive alternatives when cheaper fares are available. This is inexcusable and should be addressed at once.
The Department is required to make every effort to ensure that the best value for money is obtained in respect of each official trip undertaken. Ryanair now has the largest market share on every route from Ireland to the UK as well as from Ireland to Brussels where it out carries Aer Lingus by more than 2 to 1. Obviously the majority of ordinary people are happy to travel with Ryanair so why is it not good enough for the fat cat Civil Servants. If they were to travel with Ryanair then over €3.4 million would be saved - consider the number classrooms or hospital wards that could be built with this money. This is truly a national disgrace.”

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