Minister for Health Mary Harney has said that all trips she made on the Government jet were legitimate and on Government business.
Ms Harney was responding to information released under the Freedom of Information Act that showed she took trips over a two-and-a-half year period on the Government jet that cost more than €700,000.
Ms Harney also said the number of people taken on such trips was kept to a minimum.
She said that she herself kept her foreign travel to a minimum and had refused almost half the foreign trips she was offered last year.
The Minister also said she had no difficulty in fully disclosing her expenses and those delays in responding to Freedom of Information requests, as reported in Sunday newspapers, were due to personal issues relating to her staff.
