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Ryanair calls on “missing” Minister for Transport to support IAA stand

Direct News Source

20-Jan-2010 Ryanair today (20 Jan) called on the missing Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey to unequivocally come out in support of the Irish Aviation Authority’s stand against blackmail by the Air Traffic Controllers who are seeking a 6% pay increase, at a time when their workload has fallen by 25%.

Ryanair condemned Minister Dempsey's total inaction this afternoon, as the three Irish airports are closed by a bunch of overpaid, under-worked civil servants seeking a 6% pay increase. It is not acceptable for the Minister for Transport to disappear while the main Irish airports are closed and call for a "resolution", instead he should come out in support of the Irish Aviation Authority - one of the few Government bodies which is trying to keep costs down - when the Minister himself recently ordered 40% cost increases for the DAA airport monopoly.

Ryanair's Stephen McNamara said: "There is no justification for 6% pay increases for Air Traffic Controllers, when the number of flights they handle has fallen by 25%. This Minister for Transport, who was missing in Malta during the recent snow debacle, should come out in support of the Irish Aviation Authority, who are doing their utmost to keep costs down, at a time when the Dept of Transport is ordering 40% cost increases at Dublin Airport and presiding over huge traffic declines.

"It is bad enough that the Dept of Transport is the downtown office of the DAA, but it is unacceptable that the Minister and the Department do nothing, while a tiny group of overpaid and under-worked civil servants shut Ireland's national airports and hold the travelling public to ransom.

Minister Dempsey should act like a Minister for Transport and do something to keep air access costs to Ireland down, and support the IAA, instead of his previous support for a €10 tourist tax and 40% DAA costs increases, which are doing such damage to Irish transport, tourism and jobs."