The current President Michael D Higgins has defended the use of his private jet after he came in for some intense questioning during last night’s Presidential debate on RTE.
President Higgins who was heavily criticised for his use of the jet which costs a staggering €4,000 per hour to run, told fellow candidates and the watching Irish public that his use of the private jet wasn’t an extravagant expense.
In what seemed to be an onslaught from fellow candidates, President Higgins also told the viewing public that although he used the jet four times this year it wasn’t ultimately his decision to use it.
He did however seem to place all of the blame on his office and claimed that he only used the jet on their recommendation.
The controversial topic which was brought up Sinn Fein candidate Liadh Ni Riada also saw the other candidates slam the current President for his extravagant spending.
The disgruntled candidates were left fuming when President Higgins claimed that he only used the jet twice in the past year which was labelled as a brazen lie by fellow candidate Peter Casey who pointed out that President Higgins had indeed used the jet on four separate occasions in the past 12 months.
Many of the candidates were unhappy by the President’s use of his public expense account which has a reported total of €300,000.