Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien is in a standoff with the DAA board over the top post in the State airports group, two months after it backed a near-€1 million exit deal for chief executive Kenny Jacobs.
Mr Jacobs remains with the company and the exit package is still on the table but cannot go ahead without approval from Mr O’Brien, who wants the parties to seek a reconciliation.
The Minister wrote to the board last Thursday withholding immediate support for the deal, asking DAA chairman Basil Geoghegan and fellow directors to consider working again with Mr Jacobs.
In its initial reply to the Minister on that same day, the DAA board said its position was unchanged since it unanimously approved the exit deal on September 14th.
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Although the Minister acknowledged issues raised by the board, he was wary of setting a precedent for any future conflict between a board and chief of any other commercial semi-State enterprise.
However, the board said its view of Mr Jacobs had not changed. Directors believed it was not open to them to change position seven weeks after they approved an exit package that followed mediation with the chief executive.
The board also said it had received a new formal complaint about Mr Jacobs, understood to be from a worker director who relayed concerns set out by certain staff.
The gulf between the Minister and the operator of Dublin and Cork airports comes at a time when Mr O’Brien is seen as a prospective contender for the Fianna Fáil leadership after the party’s presidential election campaign fell apart. The fallout has raised questions within Fianna Fáil over the future of Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Mr O’Brien’s spokeswoman declined to comment when asked detailed questions about his response to the DAA affair.
[ Michael O’Leary attacks DAA over departure of CEO Kenny JacobsOpens in new window ]
Mr Jacobs spoke about transport and planning at a public event on Tuesday in Dublin but did not take questions about his own position at the company. Referring to Mr O’Brien’s role in relation to airport development, Mr Jacobs said: “The current Minister does have an appetite to go quickly.”
A representative for Mr Jacobs said he had no comment on emailed questions.
Asked about the latest developments, the DAA said: “Communications between DAA and its shareholder the Minister of Transport are confidential, and it would be inappropriate for DAA to comment further.”
The proposed exit deal for Mr Jacobs, a former Ryanair executive, comes less than three years into his seven-year term. His relations with the board broke down over the summer after directors concluded he was unsuitable for the post.
The rift followed two protected disclosures against Mr Jacobs and board concern about other issues that emerged when a senior barrister was investigating such complaints.
The formal complaints were not upheld. But the Minister was later told of board concern about Mr Jacobs’s response to the protected disclosure process.
Those anxieties were in addition to board concern about other issues separate to those raised in the formal complaints. These included, but were not limited to, questions over certain information from Mr Jacobs to board members.
Such issues were not investigated by the board because it opted to enter mediation, leading to the proposed exit deal which was unanimously backed by DAA directors in mid-September.
The €960,000 severance payment does not include Mr Jacobs’s legal fees, which would be met separately by the DAA. In addition to the need for Mr O’Brien’s approval, the payment is also subject to approval from Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers.
