Ryanair today rejected the "false claims" made by An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen in the Dáil this morning which mirrored equally "misleading claims"made by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan yesterday. In the Dáil this morning, An Taoiseach made what Ryanair claim as  four false claims about Ryanair’s offer to create up to 300 jobs, if the airline was sold or leased the Hangar 6 heavy maintenance facility.

The lies according to Ryanair:

Lie No. 1
The Taoiseach claimed that Aer Lingus has a 20 year lease over the Hangar 6 facility and that this lease cannot be broken. This is untrue, since the Tánaiste at last night’s meeting with Ryanair confirmed that Aer Lingus’ 20 year lease has the same 12 month’s notice clause in it (as all DAA leases do), allowing the DAA to request Aer Lingus to vacate Hangar 6. The exercise of this Clause by the Govt owned DAA would not be a breach of the lease, and nor would it be breaking the law, as the Taoiseach wrongly claimed.

Lie No. 2
The Taoiseach claimed that there was a 24 months notice period in the Aer Lingus Hangar 6 lease. This is also untrue, since the Tánaiste at least evening’s meeting with Ryanair confirmed that the notice clause in the Aer Lingus Hangar 6 lease was 12 months. The fact that Aer Lingus have put very little into Hangar 6 (other than 95 line engineers) means that this facility could be vacated by Aer Lingus within 12 weeks which would allow Ryanair to start recruiting some former SRT engineers for heavy maintenance on Ryanair’s fleet from September 2010 onwards.

Lie No. 3
The Taoiseach claimed that there was “a competition” for the Hangar 6 facility. This is untrue. There was no such competition. Ryanair calls on the Taoiseach to publish the terms of this competition (since they don’t exist) and he should also confirm how Aer Lingus won this competition in November, when they created not one new job in the Hangar 6 facility, over Ryanair, which offered (last September) to create up to 500 jobs in the facility. How could an airline creating no jobs, win this alleged competition over an airline offering to create 500 jobs. The Taoiseach should explain this false claim.

Lie No. 4
The Taoiseach claimed Ryanair “did not make an offer” for Hangar 6. This is also untrue. Ryanair have published the written offers it made directly to An Tánaiste in August and September last year, offering to create up to 500 maintenance jobs in Hangar 6 on the basis that Ryanair would be sold or leased the Hangar 6 facility. The Taoiseach’s claim that Ryanair did not make an offer for the facility is false.

Finfacts opinion article on the Dublin Airport saga/media offensive:

Ryanair, the Dublin Airport hangar, jobs and a media campaign

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said today: “It is extraordinary that the Taoiseach has now allowed himself to be tied up in the same lies which have been put about by the DAA for a number of days now. The Tánaiste last night confirmed (1) that the DAA can require Aer Lingus to vacate Hangar 6, (2) this can be done within 12 months (although Ryanair believes it could be done within 12 weeks given that Hangar 6 is empty) (3) that Ryanair did make an offer for the Hangar 6 facility last September and (4) the claim that Aer Lingus “won” a competition in November last despite creating no new jobs whatsoever are all false claims.

“Ryanair calls on the Taoiseach to correct these false claims, or alternatively publish the terms of the competition he claims Aer Lingus won last year, and explain to the 800 unemployed SRT engineers on what basis Aer Lingus won this competition (when they have created no jobs and have no heavy maintenance hangar) over Ryanair who offered 500 jobs and can start putting heavy maintenance work into Hangar 6 from September of this year.

“The Govt have yet to explain (as the Tánaiste refused to at last night’s meeting) why they are allowing Aer Lingus and the DAA to block Hangar 6 which is currently empty, from an airline which is offering to create 300 jobs and allocate a large volume of heavy maintenance work to this facility. Why does the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and this Govt willingly allow 300 aircraft engineers to draw the dole, while they preside over and defend Aer Lingus blocking the large heavy maintenance Hangar 6 facility, when all of Aer Lingus’ heavy maintenance has been contracted overseas for the next 8 years?”