Michael O'Leary unrepentant about calling Eamon Ryan a 'dunce' as sitdown yields ‘no meeting of the minds’

The Irish Independent asked if he felt he should have apologised for calling Mr Ryan a "dunce" and he responded: "I don't think so, I mean, we had an exchange of views. It didn't bother him and it didn't bother me either."

The Ryanair boss said there was "no meeting of minds" between him and Minister Ryan after the meeting at Ryanair HQ in North Co Dublin.

Mr O'Leary said: "Would I be voting for him as the next transport minister, absolutely not.

Why are Ryanair's Michael O'Leary and Transport Minister Eamon Ryan at war?

"We made the point to him. He said 'I can't intervene in the planning process,' and we said 'It's your policy.’

"His aviation policy is to grow traffic, grow productivity and grow jobs. And yet he sits there putting his hands up in the air. He wants to talk about e-fuels in 2050 instead of a cap at Dublin Airport in 2024 and 2025."

Mr O'Leary said while Minister Ryan is a "nice guy," its all "pie in the sky."

He also accused Transport Minister Eamon Ryan of sending out the message that Ireland was “closed for business”.

Following a meeting, Mr O’Leary said: “This is typical of what we get from Eamon Ryan, all talk, no action, no delivery.

“Eamon Ryan has essentially told us that despite the fact that his own aviation policy is to grow, he’s now telling us ‘sorry, I’m not going to take any action’.

“Send the growth elsewhere, Ireland’s loss will be to the benefit of Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.

“Jobs, our tourism industry and aviation in Ireland is now capped. We’re closed for business.”

“He essentially said to us he is not going to intervene in the matter of the Dublin Airport cap; he has this excuse that it would render the whole planning process in Ireland redundant.”

Mr O’Leary added: “The sad result of this is that we are now sending aircraft, four aircraft that we had planned to base in Dublin this summer, are now gone to southern Italy and Poland.

“That is about two million passengers have been lost to Ireland, about 800 jobs have been lost.

“He has no solution for this for the next four years.”

Minister Ryan addressed media outside the glass doors of Ryanair HQ and stated he was not offended by Mr O'Leary.

And he added that he had "not even been aware" Mr O'Leary had also insulted his Green Party colleague Minister Catherine Martin in recent days.

"Michael O'Leary has always been like that, that's his business. I'm more interested in how to serve the Irish people, that's my job,"

"It was a good meeting, he's not shy," he added.

“To be honest, it was more about the issues than the personalities.”

Mr Ryan said: “There were important things we needed to talk about, if it turns into a personal thing you miss the real story, which is in my mind how do we make aviation sustainable, and in his mind how do we get the airport working properly.

“But you can’t do that by breaking the law, you can’t throw out planning. We’ve lost so much in this country by people riding roughshod over the planning system.

“He thinks I can just go in and change the law, change the rules, change the conditions, you can’t do that, you’ve got to respect the planning system.”

Ryanair released information discussed to the media after the meeting.

It said they discussed three points: enhancing Ireland's connectivity, fostering growth of aviation to support jobs and thirdly to maximise contribution to aviation for economic growth.

The airline wants the Government to scrap what it calls a "bogus" 32m passenger cap at Dublin Airport among other measures to grow the airline.