Gavan Reilly: Like it or not, we shouldn't expect our Cabinet ministers to fly economy class

This week’s column is being filed from seat 27C of an Airbus A321. I’m following the Taoiseach on a trade and diplomatic trip to Tokyo and Singapore for the week; more of which you’ll read about in next week’s column. It’s literally a flying trip: over six days I’ll be in Japan for 50 hours, Singapore for 54, and the air for 40 – all in economy class.

It’s perfectly plausible to open a laptop and file a column in this seating, so people presume cabinet ministers should be able to work in economy too. But there’s a difference between writing an article that the passenger beside me can read (hello, seat 27B!) and considering government literature.

The post-crash expectation that ministers would fly economy class where possible was well-intended. But it has continually left ministers unable to prepare for the likes of EU meeting in Brussels because they can’t read sensitive documents, or talk to advisors, when a nosey civilian in the next seat knows who they are.

When ministers go abroad to transact the business of state we shouldn’t scoff at them for travelling appropriately.

Read the full Gavan Reilly Column in this week's paper. Gavan is the Political Correspondent with Virgin Media News and Political Columnist with Meath Chronicle