OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE: It was only when he used the word "bugger" that the Ryanair chief executive, Mr Michael O'Leary, was rebuked at an Oireachtas Committee for using unparliamentary language. Mr O'Leary claimed the offending word was a term of endearment in Mullingar, near where he lives.
Expressions such as "bloody", "goolies" and "fart" passed without remark from the chairman of the Joint Committee of Transport, Mr Eoin Ryan.
However, Mr O'Leary was asked to withdraw his claim that the former Minister for Public Enterprise, Senator Mary O'Rourke, had been "particularly incompetent" when she was in office.
Invited before the committee to explain Ryanair's policy of not refunding airport charges to passengers who do not turn up for their flights, Mr O'Leary was not in a mood for apologies. He spent most of his three-hour presentation attacking Aer Rianta in flamboyant terms.
Citing frequent complaints about the level of customer service at Ryanair, Mr O'Leary said Ireland was the only place where its achievement as a rapidly growing business was not recognised. The airline would soon rank among the world's biggest, he said. Statues would be erected in honour of the company if it was American-owned and engaged in the computer business, he said.
On the retention of landing fees paid by no-show passengers, Mr O'Leary said the airline was within its rights because customers had agreed to such terms when booking their seats. The description of landing, baggage handling and insurance "charges" as "taxes" was a matter of semantics, he said.
Mr Ryan said he could not agree. "I don't think you can justify taking the money and not paying it back," he said.
Mr O'Leary spoke at length about the principles of competition and profit and was scathing about Aer Rianta's business operation.
Accusing the company of employing "specious nonsense" to justify its investment requirements at Dublin Airport, he said Aer Rianta had plans for a "marble palace" instead of a low-cost terminal. Neither was there any need for a new runway.
"Aer Rianta is the Iraq of Irish tourism, it is an inefficient dictatorship," said Mr O'Leary, who called for "regime change" at the company.
He said there was a case to be argued that Aer Rianta should not charge any landing fees at all.
Ryanair's recent decision to switch the Irish link of a service to Hahn near Frankfurt from Shannon to Kerry was justified because Aer Rianta had increased landing fees from zero to €6 a passenger. Mr O'Leary questioned why such a fee should be levied in the midst of the Iraq war and the global economic downturn. He confirmed that the company was receiving payments to establish new routes at certain airports in Europe.
Aer Rianta last night defended its stance, saying it would not become involved in trading insults with Mr O'Leary.
Claims by Ryanair that managers at Cork Airport wanted to offer it zero charges if it transferred the Frankfurt Hahn route there were rejected by Aer Rianta's spokesman as "absolute nonsense".
Mr O'Leary said he had no difficulty with the management teams at Shannon and Cork. He could do business with "top management" in Aer Rianta, but after criticising a presentation to the Oireachtas committee by Aer Rianta chairman Mr Noel Hanlon, he said he could not deal with "political appointees".
There were other references to Iraq, as Mr O'Leary mistook the Independent TD Mr Seamus Healy for the Fianna Fáil deputy Mr Tony Killeen because of his "Saddam-like moustache".
