Govt hits back at Ryanair jobs offer claim
The Government tonight hit back at Ryanair claims that it ignored a massive jobs offer at Dublin Airport insisting there were obstacles too tough to overcome.
The budget airline accused Tánaiste Mary Coughlan and Transport Minister Noel Dempsey of doing nothing to help clinch its offer of 500 new engineering and maintenance posts at the hub.
Ryanair, who wanted the Government to act as intermediary between it and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), said the carrier instead opened a new maintenance base at Glasgow Prestwick airport employing 200 people.
Ms Coughlan said despite every effort it was not possible to secure the hanger space in Dublin, while the DAA said it never received any request from Ryanair for talks.
The Tánaiste and Enterprise Minister said: “Despite the best efforts of IDA, as acknowledged by Mr O’Leary of Ryanair, it was not possible to overcome obstacles in relation to access to specific hangar space at the airport.”
Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary had asked the Government to negotiate with the DAA to get them to sell or lease the SR Technics hanger at the same price the authority had bought it.
SR Technics closed last April at Dublin Airport with the loss of 1100 jobs in aircraft maintenance.
Mr O’Leary said Ryanair had now invested over £8 million to build a new hanger at Glasgow Prestwick Airport with over 200 new engineering and support jobs.
“It’s sad that neither the Tanaiste nor the Transport Minister are willing to stand up to the DAA monopoly, even if this results in the loss of 500 well paid engineering jobs at Dublin Airport,” Mr O’Leary said.
“Last week the first 200 of these jobs were won by Scotland and Glasgow Prestwick Airport and Ryanair expects to announce a 2nd maintenance facility at another EU airport later this year, which will account for the remainder of these jobs.”
In a statement the DAA said it never received any requests from Ryanair about its plans and that it would have been open to negotiations.
“The Dublin Airport Authority is happy to engage in discussions with any company that has plans to create jobs at DAA-owned facilities or at any other location on the Dublin Airport campus,” it read.
“The DAA would have talked to Ryanair about its plans. But at no stage did Ryanair approach the DAA in relation to having meaningful commercial negotiations with regard to this matter.”
The DAA said it did hold talks with Dublin Aerospace and Aer Lingus about leasing hangers for maintenance works which have now created 250 jobs.
