Former Aer Rianta chairman Mr Noel Hanlon presented watches worth €9,000 each to selected retiring and former members of the board of Aer Rianta in one of his final acts in office, it has emerged writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent.
The recipients included two former directors, businessman and former CIÉ chairman Mr Dermot O'Leary and the current ESB chairman, Mr Tadhg O'Donoghue. Both left the Aer Rianta board in June 2003.
Besides accepting a watch himself, Mr Hanlon also presented watches, paid for out of Aer Rianta funds, but "not Rolexes", to two other Aer Rianta directors, leading Cork businesswoman Ms Freda Hayes and ex-GPA executive Mr Liam Meade, Mr Hanlon's spokesman said last night.
Last night, Mr Hanlon stood by his decision: "He makes no apology for appropriate recognition of the exceptional contribution made by the retiring members," said his spokesman.
The outspoken businessman last week sharply criticised the former minister for transport Mr Brennan after Mr Brennan had lost his Transport role in the Cabinet reshuffle.
In one of the central changes made during Mr Brennan's term in office, Mr Hanlon and the board of Aer Rianta were put out of office last Thursday and replaced by the Dublin Airport Authority.
Distancing itself from the gifts, a Dublin Airport Authority spokesman said: "Any presentations made by the outgoing board of Aer Rianta are entirely an issue for that board."
The decision to present gifts was taken by the Aer Rianta board, said Mr Hanlon's spokesman, though two board members spoken to by The Irish Times last night said they had no knowledge of the decision.
The majority of the final Aer Rianta board membership did not receive watches, including Mr Joe Gantly, who is now in charge of the Cork Airport Authority and his Shannon counterpart, Mr Patrick Shanahan.
Saying that 30 extra board meetings had been held over the last three years, Mr Hanlon's spokesman said the directors had been required "to attend many long board meetings, exceptionally long meetings".
"It was Mr Hanlon's view that the €11,000 State payment in no way compensated them for their time or their expertise," Mr Hanlon's spokesman told The Irish Times last night.
Following his departure from the full Aer Rianta board, Mr Dermot O'Leary, who was sacked as CIÉ chairman in the mid-1990s by Fine Gael's Mr Michael Lowry, served "unpaid" on the board of Aer Rianta Middle East. Mr O'Donoghue, who has served as the chairman of the ESB since January 2001, continued to serve, also unpaid, on the board of another Aer Rianta's subsidiary, the Shannon Catering College.