Tánaiste Mary Coughlan's office has contacted Ryanair with a view to meeting with the airline's chief executive tomorrow. It is expected that a time for the meeting will be confirmed tomorrow morning.
Michael O'Leary had criticised the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for not phoning him to discuss his potential plans to create 300 aviation maintenance jobs at Dublin Airport. Mr O'Leary has said he will not deal with the Dublin Airport Authority directly.
Ryanair earlier released a letter sent by Mr O'Leary which called for a meeting with Ms Coughlan to 'explain the one or two simple steps' which could be taken to secure the jobs. The airline claims a small part of Hangar 6 has been rented by Aer Lingus, but the DAA could move Aer Lingus to another empty hangar, making it available for sale to Ryanair.
Ryanair claimed over the weekend that it had offered to create 500 jobs on the SR Technics site after it closed last year with the loss of 1,000 jobs. But the airline said it did not want to deal directly with the Dublin Airport Authority.
Correspondence released by the airline after it made the initial offer to the Tánaiste shows that Mary Coughlan replied that direct discussion with the airline and the DAA was needed to progress the plans. In response, six months later Ryanair announced that 200 of the jobs were to go to Glasgow.
The airline has criticised Ms Coughlan and said the Tánaiste fobbed it off. But the Minister said every effort was made by her and IDA Ireland to secure the Ryanair investment and urged the airline to continue its dialogue with her.
A spokesperson for IDA Ireland said it did not discuss ongoing negotiations, but its offices were available to try to resolve the issue, and the IDA had been in regular contact with Ryanair and the Dublin Airport Authority.
Meanwhile, the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) says it is, and always has been, 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.
But it said Hangar 6, which had been identified as a possible location by Ryanair, had been leased on commercial terms to Aer Lingus for its aircraft maintenance activities.
