Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary launched a stinging attack on Dublin and Cork Airport operator DAA over the imminent departure of chief executive, Kenny Jacobs, a former Ryanair executive.
Speaking as the company announced results for the first half of its financial year, Mr O’Leary said the public sector needed people like Mr Jacobs, who had been “fired” because he upset civil servants.
“They’re going to hire some pudding whose particular talent will be not upsetting Fingal County Council or the morons in the Department of Transport,” Mr O’Leary said.
Mr Jacobs is due to leave the airport authority in January after a rift with the DAA board over his management style.
RM Block
The board and Mr Jacobs have agreed a deal following mediation that will see the airports chief receive an exit package of close to €1 million, it has been reported. It is understood that this does not include legal fees, which will be met separately by the company.
However, seven weeks on, the money remains subject to approval from Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers.
“I don’t agree with a lot of what Kenny Jacobs did,” Mr O’Leary said on Monday. “He has wasted €200 million building a stupid tunnel going nowhere. As a result, charges at Dublin Airport are about to rise about 10 per cent a year for the next four years, completely destroying the cost competitiveness of Dublin Airport.
“But to fire the chief executive and pay him off with what looks like about €1.2 million because he’s upset couple of bureaucrats in Fingal County Council, who are useless, and, much more importantly, because he’s upset a couple of bureaucrats in the failed Department of Transport shouldn’t be the way.”
He described Mr Jacobs as “somebody with elbows out” who “calls out the failure of the planning system or the abject failure of the civil servants in the failed Department of Finance”.
“Those are the kind of people we need in the public sector. Not stooges whose only job is not upsetting ministers, civil servants or county councillors. It just goes to show the shambles that exists within the public sector in Ireland and why Ireland can’t get anything f**king done.”
