Michael O’Leary has gotten himself into his fair share of scrapes this year as the outspoken boss of Ryanair, going after rival airlines, his main supplier Boeing, and pub landlords, to name just a few.
However, the Ryanair chairman has provoked a political storm by attacking his latest target: teachers turned politicians.
O’Leary said Ireland needed fewer teachers in its lower house of parliament, known as the Dáil, as he spoke at an event for the centre-right political party Fine Gael.
Ireland will go to the polls on November 29 to elect a new government after the ruling Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Green Party coalition announced a snap election.
"The Dáil is full of teachers. Nothing wrong with teachers. I love teachers, but I wouldn't generally employ a lot of teachers to go out and get things done."
O’Leary doubled down on his comments on Monday, telling radio station Newstalk: “A Dáil where there is a striking surplus of teachers is not necessarily one that's going to get things done.”
The Ryanair boss wants more business people to get into politics, who he thinks are better trained to deliver change in government.
“I want to see more people enter the Dáil from private enterprise, from the private sector, and that's the energy we need if we're going to fix the infrastructure challenges we face,” he said.
The comments have put Fine Gael on the backfoot. Ireland’s prime minister, Simon Harris, and the leader of the party O’Leary is backing, called his comments “crass and ill-informed.”
Leader of the opposition, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald, said: "Teachers get the job done every day in the classroom for our children.
"I think it is completely inappropriate that they would be jeered and demeaned in the way that they were at a Fine Gael event," she said.
On Newstalk, O’Leary was challenged on whether he thought Micheál Martin, a former prime minister and a candidate O’Leary is endorsing, should leave politics.
O’Leary responded that there were “exceptions to every rule,” pointing out he “wouldn’t necessarily agree” with Donald Trump, a businessman who had gotten into politics.
Teachers are among the most represented group in the Dáil, a point noted in 2020 by Paul Byrne, former deputy director of the National Association for Principals and Deputy Principals.
“Teachers need to be able to lead and motivate people, make fine judgment calls, make use of very limited resources, implement policy changes, and meet the varying needs of students, parents, and communities in a constantly evolving society,” he said at the time.
Alongside Martin, former prime minister Enda Kenny is an ex-teacher. Michael D. Higgins, who has been Ireland’s president since 2011, is a former lecturer at the University of Ireland, Galway.
O’Leary reignites passenger cap gripe
There appeared to be a personal vendetta in O’Leary’s motivations, as he used Ireland’s tourism minister, Catherine Martin, as an example of a former teacher who he thinks should have stayed in the classroom.
“She's been minister for tourism for five years, and what has she delivered? A cap at Dublin Airport. We now can't grow tourism.”
Dublin Airport has a cap of 32 million passengers per year despite opening a second runway that would allow for 60 million, a point that has caused O’Leary deep frustration at Ryanair’s main airport.
“I think Catherine Martin would be far better off back in the classroom to do the valuable work that teachers do and as far away from the reigns of government making decisions, where I think she's clearly failed.”
