Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - 09:29

Economise on travel, GSD tells CM

Given the current state of public finances it is important to find economies where possible. The GSD has written to the Chief Minister in his capacity as Minister for Finance to review travel policies asking that Ministerial and Parliamentary travel on short-haul flights be undertaken on an economy basis.

Given the amount of Ministerial travel and accompanying officials this will potentially save hundreds of thousands of pounds and should be adopted as a practice until the public finances are in better shape. At a time when Government are projecting loses of £1 million a week this makes sense.

Clinton’s travel costs are three times a Minister’s!

It is quite incredible that Mr Clinton should have chosen to raise concern about the cost of travel for a Parliamentary conference in Belfast when his own seat is nearly three times as expensive as that booked by a Government Minister for the same event. This suggests that his main objective was to generate an artificial controversy in public rather than a genuine expression of concern, says the Government.
And adds: This latest Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) conference is taking place in Belfast.
It appears Mr Clinton chose to travel from Gibraltar to London in Club Class and then from London to Belfast. This came to a combined cost of approximately £1,100 return.
There is a Minister attending this same conference who instead chose to travel with a low cost carrier to Belfast at a cost of only £384 return.