Michael O'Leary under fire after 'The Grabbing' comment
The boss of Ryanair is under fire after launching a verbal attack on the Government's 'The Gathering' tourism promotion, and on the Dublin Airport Authority.
Michael O'Leary called The Gathering a rip-off and renamed it 'The Grabbing'. Speaking at an aviation conference in Dublin, he said people were being asked to come here next year to be "screwed" with increasing charges.
Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar hit back that Mr O'Leary "should look at his own business before he talks about money-grabbing".
"I think Michael needs a new song to sing really," he said.
"The Ryanair position on money-grabbing is always that everyone else is ripping you off - whether it's airports, governments, other airlines; even to the extent that they are now levying passengers for a European Union charge that isn't even being levied."
"So Michael O'Leary accusing anybody of grabbing money is a little bit entertaining."
Mr O'Leary also again criticised the Dublin Airport Authority about its charges and said there was no hope of the extra capacity needed for growth.
But Director of Public Affairs at the DAA, Paul O'Kane said Mr O'Leary was being selective.
"He says no airline is growing apart from Ryanair…Last year in Dublin Airport, we had 30 airlines that grew," he said.
