Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe held a private and previously undisclosed dinner meeting at an upmarket Dublin restaurant with Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary in February 2022.
A spokeswoman for Mr Donohoe said it was a private dinner and that no business matters were discussed, and neither were matters of policy or regulation. It was not included in his ministerial diary – which his spokeswoman said is “used predominantly to log official events”.
No records were kept as it was a private dinner, and no actions were taken arising from it, she said.
When first contacted about whether Mr Donohoe had met Mr O’Leary by The Irish Times earlier this month, the Minister’s team did not disclose the dinner until after they were approached again with more information about its timing.
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Mr Donohoe’s spokeswoman said that the information was not supplied after this initial approach as it was a “dinner of a private nature”. The dinner took place in Delahunt, a fashionable restaurant in Dublin 2. It was attended by another unnamed person.
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“One other person was present at the dinner. We will not comment on who this is, respecting the privacy of the person in question,” Mr Donohoe’s spokeswoman said.
Ryanair confirmed that Mr O’Leary had met Mr Donohoe for dinner in early February 2022. “This was a social dinner in a Dublin restaurant in the company of others. No Ryanair business or regulation as Min Donoghue (sic) has no responsibility for transport or tourism.”
No lobbying return was made by Ryanair regarding the dinner. The airline said: “Since this was a social setting (in a public place) no lobbying took place and no lobbying return was required or necessary.”
Under lobbying laws, not every contact between companies and politicians has to be logged to the State’s register for tracking lobbying. It only must be disclosed when a matter such as the development or changes to public policies are being discussed, or the preparation of amendments or laws, or the awards of grants, loans or similar matters involving public funds are on the agenda.
Fine Gael faced a significant political backlash after comments made by Mr O’Leary at the launch of Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke’s campaign just after the general election was called. A video of his remarks that surfaced after the event showed he said he would not employ teachers “to go out and get things done”, saying that the Dáil was “full of teachers”.
The outspoken aviation boss doubled down afterwards, saying he had been subjected to a pile-on. Ryanair was recently an outspoken critic of a limit put on traffic through Dublin Airport which would have seen a restriction on the number of aircraft landing slots next summer. Mr O’Leary made strong criticisms of Green Party Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan, who said he would not intervene in the planning system.
A High Court ruling at the start of the month put a stay on the cap and prevented the imposition of slot restrictions.
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