The Public Accounts Committee today heard that around €9 million was spent between 2005 and 2009 on two airstrips in the west of Ireland that have never been in use.
The airstrips were built at Cleggan in Co Galway and the island of Inishbofin.
The Secretary General of the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht also confirmed to the committee that €300,000 had been spent on maintenance of airstrips in 2014. However part of that money is said to have been spent on landing strips on the Aran Islands that are in use.
Fine Gael TD for Longford-Westmeath Gabrielle McFadden is a member of the Public Accounts Committee, and questioned Secretary General Joe Hamill today on the airstrips.
She spoke to Jonathan Healy on Newstalk Lunchtime earlier today. She started by explaining how and why the airstrips were built:
