More than €500k was spent on Garda surveillance plane which flew for seven hours

More than €550,000 was spent on maintenance for a Garda surveillance aircraft in the last three years of its use, despite it flying for around seven hours during that period. Between 2023 and 2025, the Garda Air Support Unit’s Defender 4000 fixed wing aircraft cost roughly €79,000 per hour of operations, according to figures obtained by The Irish Times.Maintenance issues meant the aircraft, which was first acquired in 1997 from the British company Britten-Norman, saw declining use in the years leading up to its retirement in 2025.Between 2020 and 2022, €16,278 was spent on fuel for the Defender, translating into about 84 hours of operations based on standard fuel burn rates for that aircraft. After this, usage declined sharply.READ MOREIn 2023, the aircraft recorded no flight hours but cost €271,594 in maintenance. In 2024, it cost €275,684 in maintenance despite recording only around five flight hours.In 2025, the aircraft’s final year of operations, it flew for around two hours and cost €2,639 in maintenance.In total, the aircraft cost €551,323 in fuel and maintenance since 2023, and flew for around seven hours.The Defender, like all aircraft in the Garda Air Support Unit (GASU), was flown by pilots from the Air Corps. It typically carried two gardaí and was used on surveillance missions involving organised crime and in national security.It is understood the majority of flight hours recorded on the aircraft in the last years of its life were test flights conducted by pilots from the manufacturers.[ Finland cut homelessness by 80 per cent with housing-first policy, Irish conference hearsOpens in new window ]The maintenance and fuel costs, which were released following a Freedom of Information request, do not include the fitting of sophisticated new equipment to the aircraft in the final years of its life.This included tactical radios and a Flir Ultraforce camera capable of thermal imaging. This equipment saw little use, sources said.In late 2025, the GASU acquired a replacement for the Defender, a Canadian-made DHC-6 Twin Otter Guardian 400, for €7 million.Its mission is intelligence gathering and surveillance. The aircraft is designed to operate at high altitude, invisible to people on the ground, and it can remain in the air for hours at a time.A separate programme to replace the Garda’s two ageing Eurocopter EC135 helicopters is continuing. They will be replaced by two Airbus H145, with the option to purchase a third if required.However, the arrival of one of these helicopters, which was built in 2024, has been delayed due to a paperwork mix-up.[ Gardaí to take industrial action on five dates next month, including budget dayOpens in new window ]The GASU is also facing a shortage of Air Corps pilots to operate its aircraft. There are currently just six pilots attached to the unit instead of the required 10.This has meant Garda helicopters are frequently unavailable for night operations. Crew shortages meant neither of the two helicopters were available on the night on the fatal M9 crash on August 16th. Five teenagers were killed when their car, which was being driven the wrong way down the motorway, collided with another vehicle near Moone, Co Kildare.The occupants of that vehicle, three women and a seven-year-old child, were severely injured.