Eamon Ryan to meet Michael O'Leary following ‘personally abusive’ comments
By Cillian Sherlock, PA
The Minister for Transport is to meet the head of Ryanair after accusing him of being “personally abusive”.
Eamon Ryan said he would “set the record straight” during a meeting with Michael O’Leary on Thursday, one week after the airline executive launched a personal broadside against him in a row over passenger caps at Dublin Airport.
Last week, Mr O’Leary said Mr Ryan and Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin were “dunces” for failing to act on the airline’s demands to remove a cap limiting Dublin Airport to 32 million passengers per year.
The Ryanair boss said the Green Party politicians should raise the passenger cap or leave politics.
Mr Ryan has said comments from Mr O’Leary directly and his company’s social media posts in recent weeks had been “personally abusive”.
Asked about the upcoming meeting, the Green Party leader said he would use it to “set the record straight on a couple of things that he may be misguided”.
He said: “I’m interested in the details of policy here discussing with Ryanair, I don’t think there’ll be any problem on a personal level.”
He wanted to inform Ryanair about his personal role in efforts to tackle terminal overcrowding and drone intrusion at the airport.
Asked if he would be raising the criticism levelled at him during the meeting, Mr Ryan said: “I mentioned that, I think, as a matter of fact, like if you look at social media and so on – I don’t think that would be disputed.
“To be honest, that doesn’t really bother me one way or the other.”
Mr Ryan said he would be discussing how to make sure Dublin Airport operated well and how to develop an aviation sector that “serves our people”.
Speaking after an event about Dublin city’s climate ambitions, Mr Ryan added: “I’m looking to discuss with him how we decarbonise aviation.
“Like we can’t have certain sectors and Dubliners all during our bit and one sector not being part of it.”
But he added that Ryanair was “quite advanced” on working with researchers at Trinity College on measuring and advancing sustainable aviation fuels.
He said: “As Transport and as Climate and Energy Minister, what I’m looking to do and to discuss with Michael O’Leary and his team is: ‘What do we do next? What do we do further? How do we make aviation sustainable in this big change we need to make?'”
On the passenger cap, Mr Ryan said he could not “throw out the planning system”.
“The independence and the strength of our planning system is really important and that’s one of the things I’ve been looking to talk to Michael about,” he said.
