Ryan line open for O’Leary but ‘no meeting of minds’
RYANAIR boss Michael O’Leary has accused Transport Minister Eamon Ryan of sending out the message that the country is ‘closed for business’.
Following a meeting between the two men yesterday, Mr O’Leary said a failure to lift the passenger cap at Dublin Airport meant that airline business was now being sent to other parts of Europe.
Mr Ryan, who previously accused Mr O’Leary of being ‘personally abusive’ towards him, said the meeting had concentrated on issues rather than personalities.
The meeting comes one week after the airline executive launched a personal broadside against the minister in a row over passenger caps at the airport.
Following yesterday’s meeting, Mr O’Leary said: ‘There wasn’t any meeting of minds. We are very critical of his failure as Minister for Transport implementing Ireland’s aviation policy, which is to grow traffic, grow aviation jobs and grow the contribution of aviation to the Irish economy. He essentially said to us he is not going to intervene in the matter of the Dublin Airport cap; he has this excuse that it would render the whole planning process in Ireland redundant.’
Mr O’Leary added: ‘The sad result of this is that we are now sending aircraft, four aircraft that we had planned to base in Dublin this summer, are now gone to southern Italy and Poland. That is about two million passengers have been lost to Ireland, about 800 jobs have been lost. He has no solution for this for the next four years.’
He said that this is ‘typical of what we get from Eamon Ryan: all talk, no action, no delivery’.
Mr O’Leary added: ‘Jobs, our tourism industry and aviation in Ireland is now capped. We’re closed for business.’
Mr Ryan said the two men had disagreed over the passenger cap, but had more agreement discussing sustainable aviation fuels. He said: ‘[Mr O’Leary] thinks I can just go in and change the law, change the rules, change the conditions; you can’t do that, you’ve got to respect the planning system.’