Ryanair Boss Sparks Outrage By Singling Out Teachers in Irish Election Campaign

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has defended comments he made about teachers, which sparked a row on the opening weekend of the Irish general election campaign. Politicians and teaching unions reacted angrily after he said he would not employ teachers to "get things done" and that the Dáil (lower house of Irish parliament) was "full" of them. He had been addressing a gathering of the Fine Gael party, which is led by outgoing Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Simon Harris. On Monday, Mr O'Leary said more businesspeople were needed in the Dáil. Footage of his remarks at the Fine Gael event on Saturday was shared on social media, prompting a backlash against the airline boss. He said: "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."

Harris has distanced his party from Mr O'Leary's comments, calling them "crass and ill-informed". The taoiseach described teachers as "the backbone of Irish society" and said that he was not sure many people who would survive five minutes at the top of a classroom. Speaking to Newstalk on Monday morning, Mr O'Leary said he wanted to see more people entering the Dáil from the private sector because he believed they would help to deliver change. "That's the energy we need if we are going to fix the infrastructure challenges and provide housing and infrastructure for six million people," he said. He said the country needed teachers delivering excellent education in the classroom but that he did not necessarily think they were the people who would get things done in the Dáil.

Mr O'Leary said he believed some former teachers who had previously elected to the Dáil had performed poorly. He singled out the outgoing Tourism and Culture Minister Catherine Martin as an example and said her implementation of a passenger cap at Dublin Airport had limited the tourism industry. She was "like a rabbit caught in the headlights" as she tried to fix problems at the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ, he said. Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald criticised Mr O'Leary's remarks, saying that "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 added. The outgoing Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said he "100%" disagreed with Mr O'Leary's comments. Green Party leader Roderic O'Gorman said he was "really appalled" by what he described as the disrespect of the Ryanair CEO towards the teaching profession. The Social Democrats also condemned what they called "open mocking" of teachers at the Fine Gael event. Ivana Bacik, the leader of the Labour Party, said it was disappointing to hear anyone taking "snipes or sneers" at teachers.

It is hard to imagine anyone who has taken even a passing interest in his 30-year career as chief executive at Ryanair will be surprised by this but reactions from Irish Times readers to Michael O’Leary’s comments on the number of teachers in the Dáil over the weekend suggest he has once again succeeded in deeply dividing opinion. Fine Gael has found itself in a slightly awkward position since then, having to distance itself from an endorsement of one of its Ministers by a hugely successful and prominent businessmen. Our entirely unscientific poll suggests, however, there are quite a few people out there who would have been happy to see the party, like Mr O’Leary himself, double down on the comments. One thing to note, though, and take this how you will, a few of them seem to be related to teachers.

“The Dáil is the legislative assembly of the country yet the electorate has repeatedly returned teachers to a position in which they have no practical experience,” says Joseph Greally a retired engineer, businessman and, he acknowledges with a laugh that suggests he knows he might be in trouble for saying this, father of a teacher, based in Kildare. “They are not legislators, economists, managers or financial experts,” he says. “The government budget is measured in tens of billions. If a private company was to employ people to run an enterprise of that scale, teachers wouldn’t feature highly on the list of suitable candidate. In my 50 years of business I’ve seen very few teachers with the ability to comprehend business or work to the level that is needed in this area. Teaching may not be so easy today but it is a vastly different task to being one of the people responsible for making the decisions and laws needed in this rapidly changing dangerous world. Before shooting Michael O’Leary down in flames ask yourself, Would you employ a teacher to run the Central Bank? Probably not.”

Ronan Furlong, the Dublin-based son of a teacher, believes Mr O’Leary “was making a general point about the lack of technical and business expertise in the Dáil and was 100 per cent correct to do so”. “There are huge challenges facing the country around infrastructure, housing, health, and enterprise and innovation policy etc. However, there are relatively few professionals in Dáil Éireann with the requisite expertise and/or private sector know-how in areas like transport, renewable energy, construction or finance. Instead of the media and politicos taking offence at O’Leary’s remarks,” he says, “they’d all be better off having a serious debate about the underlying message.”

Carol Widger, a lawyer, says she doesn’t have an opinion one way or the other on whether teachers make good politicians but diversity is a good thing. “Public representatives should be representative of wider society and no one group should predominate,” she says. “As with the boards of public companies, we need diversity of thought and that comes from having decisions made by people with different backgrounds, a mix of gender, race and life experiences,” she says. Ms Widger is not the only reader to express irritation that, whatever road took them to the current Dáil, our politicians did not have the collective expertise to avoid the bike shed or national children’s hospital controversies.

There were many other responses critical of Mr O’Leary’s take, though, with Rita O’Driscoll in Cork describing them as “naive”, observing that many teachers “inspire their pupils”, “navigate them through tough times with sensitivity and encouragement” and “impact their life trajectory”. Stewart Kenny, another retired businessman, one who now works with people with ADHD, says for him, “If it’s a choice between Micheál Martin (ex-teacher) or Michael Lowry (ex-private sector business) I know which I will vote for. Michael O’Leary is welcome to a Dáil full of Elon Musks.”

Richie MacLiam, who mixes teaching with running a couple of small businesses – rather playing into the hands of those readers who contend their hours, holidays and career break arrangements facilitate teachers’ entry into politics – suggests it was not so much Mr O’Leary’s comments as the reaction to them that is the problem. “He’s certainly entitled to his views, whether or not they’re well-informed. More concerning, however, is Fine Gael’s response, which fell short. Ignoring the laughter in the room won’t make it disappear.”

Niamh Hatton, though, suspects those involved won’t be too concerned by all the controversy. “It’s not quite true that there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” she says, “but a lot more people know who’s running for Fine Gael in Longford-Westmeath now than would have if the campaign had been launched with the usual bland platitudes and been reported on in a short article way down the newsfeeds.”

Emmet Malone is Work Correspondent at The Irish Times

THERE was a surprising level of shock after local billionaire Michael O’Leary singled out the profession of teachers among sitting Dáil TDs as an excuse as to why the country is the way it is without once mentioning the large number of landlords, WWN has learned. Despite the fact some 80 TDs and Senators are landlords or landowners with some politicians holding substantial property portfolios, the man overseeing a company ranked the 10th largest polluter in Europe turned his attention to 19 politicians who are former teachers. “He has a point though,” echoed the nation’s dads, who just love how the billionaire says it how it is, adding, “we wouldn’t have nearly 15,000 homeless people if it wasn’t for those lazy bastard teachers currently influencing policy to suit themselves. As Michael said we need more TDs from the private sector to bring more tax breaks and less pesky CO2 regulations to generate the revenue needed to keep big international airline profits soaring so people like Michael can receive more €100mn yearly bonuses”.

O’Leary, a landlord with a vast property portfolio himself, doubled down on his remarks over the weekend by insisting ‘people were free to disagree with him’. “Oh no, don’t get me wrong; I absolutely despise any civil servant earning less than 100 grand per year that can’t facilitate my own financial interests, that’s why I’m voting for Fine Gael,” O’Leary concluded.

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has doubled down on his controversial comments about teachers. The Ryanair boss said at an election event at the weekend, where he endorsed Enterprise Minister and Fine Gael TD Peter Burke, that teachers should not lead the country. This prompted sharp criticism from teachers’ unions and political parties, while the Fine Gael leadership have attempted to distance themselves from the comments. Mr O’Leary has since doubled down on his stance, telling Newstalk Breakfast on Monday that there are “too many teachers in the Dail”. He said that he was making a “serious” point about the need for more diversity in the Dail parliament – and said there was a need for more business owners to become TDs.

The Ryanair chief also said that Media and Tourism Minister Catherine Martin was “far better off back in the classroom”. “This country is facing enormous challenges over the next decade, where the population is going to rise from five to six million people,” Mr O’Leary said. “Now we need lots of teachers delivering excellent education in the classroom, but a Dail where there is a striking surplus of teachers in the Dail is not necessarily one that’s going to get things done. I want to see more people enter the Dail 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, and if we’re going to provide housing and infrastructure for a population of six million people. I think teachers do a great job in the classroom, but I’m not sure that teachers in the Dail are necessarily the best people to deliver the kind of change and enterprise we need.”

He cited Green Party ministers Catherine Martin and Roderic O’Gorman as two former teachers “who have clearly failed” in their roles. “I’ll give you the example of Catherine Martin, for example, who’s the Minister for Tourism. She’s been Minister for Tourism for five years, and what has she delivered? A (passenger) cap at Dublin Airport. I think Catherine Martin will be far better off back in the classroom doing the valuable work that teachers do and as far away from the reins of government or making decisions, where I think she’s clearly failed.” He said that Fine Gael and Fianna Fail had done “a great job” in government, while their coalition party colleagues the Green Party needed to be “weeded out” and the main opposition party Sinn Fein should be “ignored”. “I think people should vote for Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, I think Fine Gael and Fianna Fail should transfer to each other. I think nobody should vote for the Greens.”

Asked about Tanaiste and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, who was a former teacher, he said “there is an exception to every rule”. Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan, also speaking on Newstalk, said that Mr O’Leary dislikes the Green Party because “we deliver, but not what he wants”. “The real question here, and this is an election issue, is: why is Fine Gael aligning themselves with Michael O’Leary in this way?” the former Green Party leader said. Mr Ryan said it was a sign that the party wants to be “less ambitious on climate” which he said was “a mistake”.

Simon Harris has called Michael O’Leary’s comments about teachers who become politicians “crass and ill informed” and said he would have no further involvement in the Fine Gael campaign. The Ryanair boss has come under criticism for saying he would not hire teachers to “get things done”, at a Fine Gael event at the weekend. Mr O’Leary was endorsing Minister for Enterprise and Fine Gael candidate Peter Burke in the Longford–Westmeath constituency, adding that he would give his second preference to Fianna Fail candidate Robert Troy. He has doubled down on the remarks on Monday, telling Newstalk that there are “too many teachers in the Dail” parliament and they are not “the best people to deliver the kind of change and enterprise we need”. The businessman also said that Media and Tourism Minister Catherine Martin was “far better off back in the classroom”, while endorsing Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. “I think the comments made were crass, they were ill informed. I’m pretty annoyed about it”, he said. He said the Dail parliament was not like running a company and was “meant to be reflective of society”. He also pointed out that former taoiseach Enda Kenny and former finance minister Michael Noonan were both teachers before entering politics. “Teachers are the people that we can trust with our most precious possessions: our children, I know that in my own house. And there’s not that many people who can stand up in front of a classroom for five seconds and last, let alone for the full day, for the full week, full month, it is a tough job. It’s an impactful job, and I have nothing but respect for teachers.”

Asked about laughter at the comments made by Mr O’Leary at a Fine Gael event at the weekend, he said that cheering at the comments was “inappropriate”. Mr Harris also said he did not know whether Mr O’Leary had donated to the Fine Gael campaign. “Michael O’Leary was at a local event in the constituency in which he resides. He will have no further involvement, nor does he have any involvement in the campaign,” Mr Harris said. “His views don’t reflect my position, or the position of my party at all.” He added: “Michael O’Leary is Michael O’Leary. I’m not sure he’s ever made an intervention that hasn’t generated a significant level of discussion and debate. We live in a democracy. He can say he wants.” “Quite frankly, he wouldn’t be somebody I’d be inviting to a launch, because his way of engaging and speaking isn’t it to my taste. He can engage in speaking as he wishes, but I prefer to do my politics in a more mannerly fashion. I didn’t like some of the interventions that he had made in relation to some of my Cabinet colleagues – even if, by the way, I saw validity in the point and the passenger cap needs to go, by the way, I think it’s extraordinarily problematic. But I never believed in the politics of personalisation.”

Mr O’Leary’s remarks have prompted sharp criticism from teachers’ unions and parties across the political spectrum, while senior Fine Gael figures have distanced themselves from the comments. Tanaiste Micheal Martin said anyone who aspires to political office should launch their own campaign. “You’re out there asking people to vote for you, to support you. Why are you going forward in the first place? That’s my view of life,” he said on Monday. “No one ever launched my campaign. That’s my view and I would say to all of my colleagues, launch your campaign, motivate your own supporters and members, and motivate them enough that they’ll go out and knock on doors on your behalf because they believe in you as a political representative. But it’s open to any individual, to be fair now, we’re in a democracy. If somebody wants to bring somebody in to launch their campaign or to be with them in the launch of their campaign, that’s democracy. That’s a matter for the person concerned to defend the position they took in doing that. My view is politicians and political representatives, if they aspire to public office, should lead their own campaigns and launch their own campaigns and outline why they want to be elected and what they want to do in office.”

Speaking on Newstalk earlier on Monday, Mr O’Leary said he was making a “serious” point about the need for more diversity in the Dail parliament – and said there was a need for more business owners to become TDs. “This country is facing enormous challenges over the next decade, where the population is going to rise from five to six million people,” Mr O’Leary said. “Now we need lots of teachers delivering excellent education in the classroom, but a Dail where there is a striking surplus of teachers in the Dail is not necessarily one that’s going to get things done. I want to see more people enter the Dail 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, and if we’re going to provide housing and infrastructure for a population of six million people. I think teachers do a great job in the classroom, but I’m not sure that teachers in the Dail are necessarily the best people to deliver the kind of change and enterprise we need.”

Greens leader Roderic O’Gorman said he was “appalled” by Mr O’Leary’s comments. He said the Ryanair boss was “designing his fantasy Cabinet”, which would be made up of “solely rich men”. “I think Michael O’Leary’s comments yesterday in terms of teachers and disrespecting an entire profession were absolutely disgraceful,” he added. “We’ve seen, over the past few weeks, billionaires punching down in America, and it’s really sad to see now that billionaires punching down is becoming part of Irish politics as well. I was particularly shocked to see the big cheer it got from the Fine Gael faithful at their election launch event.” He added that Mr O’Leary wants the Green Party out of government. “Michael O’Leary is a climate denier. Michael O’Leary is a profiteer,” he added. “He wants to get profits for Ryanair and that’s his sole goal in life, and that’s fair enough. But a government can’t be designed around the needs of one big company. A government has to provide for everybody. I think what he’s pushing is what I worry is maybe a view of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael – let’s push the Greens out. Let’s just do a two-party government. I think, fundamentally, a two-party government of just Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, it would be the kind of government that Michael O’Leary likes. It would be the kind of government that would be good for billionaires, but I don’t think it would be the kind of government that would be good for people all over the country.”

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald has called for Mr Harris to clarify the response inside the room to Mr O’Leary’s comments. “The issue here isn’t the comments themselves, the issue is the response by a room full of Fine Gael members and activists, and elected representatives I presume,” she said. “I don’t think the Taoiseach has clarified that and I think he should.”