Acquiring and maintaining the 50 State cars in the ministerial fleet will cost taxpayers an estimated €715,000 this year, according to figures released by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.
The 50 vehicles include spare cars and presidential vehicles like the vintage Rolls Royce Silver Wraith used recently by the President, Mrs McAleese, for her inauguration ceremony.
The costs include €495,000 to acquire new vehicles and €220,00 for maintenance. Last year the amount spent was €564,000, including €368,000 for the acquisition of cars and €196,000 on maintenance.
This expense comes from the Garda budget, the Minister told Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Mr Jim O'Keeffe. Mr McDowell also said the State plans to proceed with the outsourcing of the Garda vehicle maintenance activity "to a national service provider or consortium".
This was one of the recommendations in the report following a major review of Garda structures, including the Garda transport section. Mr O'Keeffe had asked if the Minister intended to expand the transport section. Replying to a number of written Dáil questions on the issue, Mr McDowell said State cars "have been referred to main dealers" 159 times since the start of the year.
State cars are provided to the President, the Taoiseach and Cabinet, the Ceann Comhairle, the Attorney General, the Government Chief Whip, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Chief Justice and former presidents and taoisigh. Last year the Minister indicated the cost of providing State cars to ministers was €2.9 million but this also included the provision of a Garda driver as well as operating costs.
The models in the fleet include Mercedes E320, E280, and E240; Saab 9-5 SE 2.0; Volvo S80 and S70 T5, Opel Vectra 2.2 and Lexus GS 300 Executive.
