A meeting between Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary and Tanaiste Mary Coughlan about a proposed Ryanair project at Dublin Airport has ended.
Ryanair says it could create 300 maintenance jobs at the airport. It wants to use Hangar 6, on which Aer Lingus currently has a 20-year lease. Ryanair has claimed that the hangar is empty and is not being used for anything.
Mr O'Leary tonight said the Minister confirmed that she would not be asking the DAA to ask Aer Lingus to leave Hangar 6. He turned down the offer for a new hangar.
Ahead of the meeting, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan said the Government was 'entirely serious' about the proposed Ryanair project, but said the airline was imposing 'significant conditions'.
She said the refusal to talk to the DAA was 'difficult, but perhaps not impossible' to meet, but the insistence on using Hangar 6 was 'much more problematical'. The Tánaiste also said Ryanair's approach to a similar project in Prestwick in Scotland was very different, as it negotiated with the Prestwick authorities and was building a hangar at the Scottish airport.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny called on the Taoiseach to personally take responsibility for the project. Reading from a copy of the lease on Hangar 6, Mr Kenny said it was possible for the Dublin Airport Authority to take space or buildings at the airport as required.
Mr Kenny said if the government was serious about creating jobs, it would require the DAA to take back Hangar 6.
Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore said this was the second time the Government had made a mess of the high-tech jobs issue at Dublin airport. He accused the Government of letting the jobs 'go down the spout'.
The Taoiseach said parties had to sit down and 'calmly and rationally' explore how the Ryanair jobs could be secured. He said the conditionality on Hangar 6 had to be further explored.
