RYANAIR CHIEF executive Michael O’Leary had his wings clipped in the High Court yesterday by Mr Justice Peter Kelly, who said the airline boss had lied in a letter sent to Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey on February 25th.
The letter alleged the judge publicly criticised the Minister at an earlier hearing over an “inexcusable delay to appoint an appeal panel” to consider appeals against proposed new passenger charges at Dublin airport. “The statement that I was so critical is untrue and a lie,” Mr Justice Kelly said in his ruling.
“It seems to me a very poor state of affairs indeed when a public company and its chief executive takes it upon himself to write to a Minister in the terms that he does, seriously misrepresenting what was said in this court.”
The judge instructed Mr O’Leary to write a letter to the Minister to correct his statement and said a draft must be submitted to him by next Tuesday for his approval.
The judge said he wanted to be sure the letter was “clear, unequivocal, unreserved and without any gloss”. Earlier in the proceedings, which lasted for almost two hours, Mr O’Leary had apologised to the judge for the content of his letter.
The judge described Mr O’Leary’s explanation to the court as “pathetic” and said it was only with “prompting from the court” he agreed to write a letter to the Minister.
Mr Justice Kelly considered a contempt of court charge against Mr O’Leary but accepted his apology to the court and his agreement to write to the Minister. He awarded maximum costs against Ryanair.
Mr O’Leary got off on the wrong foot with Mr Justice Kelly when he went to swear an oath with his left hand in his pocket. The judge instructed him to take his hand out of his pocket while swearing the oath.
Speaking after the hearing, Mr O’Leary, who was visibly shaken, said he would draft the letter within “the next hour” and said it would be written with “humility”.
He added: “We take on board what the judge has said and we’ll comply with his directions to send a letter of apology to the Minister. I always learn when I visit the Four Courts. There’s always something you can learn both in terms of the drafting of my letters and in the conduct of our legal actions.
“I will certainly have to take a lot more care to make sure that letters . . . are factually accurate in every respect.”
The proceedings arose after the Commission for Aviation Regulation last month sought to fast-track Ryanair’s proposed judicial review challenge to its decision in December fixing the maximum charges at Dublin airport for the next five years.