One more thing

Ryanair man speaks out; Denis O’Brien assists you in getting your tax returned; danger of PR; charter flights; and a popular DG in Montrose

O'Leary all for clipping wings

RYANAIR CHIEF executive Michael O’Leary was in flying form in Dublin’s Alexander Hotel on Wednesday as he took pot shots at all and sundry over the demise of Irish tourism and the collapse of the State’s economy.

Sporting a dodgy looking moustache – he’s part of the Movember campaign to raise funds for the Irish Cancer Society – O’Leary was remarkably upbeat about the prospect of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) intervening in our economic affairs.

“The country is bankrupt,” O’Leary said, cutting to the chase. “The only way out of this is an IMF solution and, frankly, the sooner the better.

“We have a government and a civil service that are incapable of managing this economy and the sooner we get rid of them and replace them with some intelligent IMF policies, the better off we will be,” he added, warming to the topic.

“I don’t have any truck with this nonsense about us losing our sovereignty.

“We lost our sovereignty when we ran up these huge debts. The quickest way back is to get in some outside agency like the IMF to restore order to the public finances.”

Whatever cuts the IMF might impose, O’Leary doesn’t fear for our precious 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate.

“I suspect they won’t change corporation tax because . . . it will see a flight of foreign inward investment out of Ireland.

“One of the few things we have going for us is a low corporate tax rate, which has encouraged multimillion-euro investments in Ireland.”

However he does expect hikes to most other taxes and even had a suggestion of his own for the IMF team in Dublin.

“They can use the Croke Park agreement as a fire lighter and have a bonfire of the quangos, all of which are useless and unfit for purpose.”

A helping hand to retrieve your airport taxes

DENIS O’BRIEN is well-known for giving fledgling Irish businesses and entrepreneurs a leg up.

One such company is Airtaxrefund.com, launched recently by Brian Whelan and Don Cullinane.

The aim of the company is to get airlines – Aer Lingus and Ryanair in particular – to refund Government taxes and airport charges to passengers who book with the carriers but don’t fly.

They have started with the Irish market but plan to take it across Europe and are now out fundraising.

To help them get started, O’Brien has offered €50,000 worth of advertising airtime on his various radio stations, which is a decent lift for the new business.

“I made an approach to Denis to see if he would be interested in supporting the business and he agreed,” Whelan told me this week. O’Brien’s gesture is all the more generous given that he owns about 2 per cent of Aer Lingus, one of the airlines that has benefited from retaining the taxes and charges.

Airtaxrefund.com estimates that the airlines retain up to €28 million in taxes and charges in Ireland alone from “no-show” passengers.

Both Aer Lingus and Ryanair charge chunky administration fees for such refunds, with the result that most people don’t bother on the basis that it is not really worth the hassle.

Whelan, who also handles PR for the aviation regulator, said it was currently processing claims with Aer Lingus and Ryanair.

Whelan said Aer Lingus were playing ball but he had had “no joy” with Ryanair.

Now there’s a surprise.

Perils of PR and press release libel

THIS WEEK’s astonishing record €10 million libel award to former Kenmare Resources director Donal Kinsella must have sent a shiver through the public relations industry here.

At the heart of the defamation case was a press release issued in July 2007 by Kenmare and experienced PR executive Jim Milton of Murray Consultants.

Kenmare wants to appeal the award so it remains to be seen what sum Mr Kinsella might eventually receive.

But the case raises serious questions for the wider PR industry.

While there’s no suggestion that Murrays or Milton will have to share the financial pain of any payment to Kinsella, who is to say that an aggrieved client might not pursue its PR adviser in such a manner in the future?

This would force PR agencies to tap their professional indemnity insurance.

Writing a press release will never be the same again, a point acknowledged by Gerry Davis of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland when I contacted him yesterday.

“People wouldn’t see PR as a hazardous profession but you see now that it potentially is.”

Extra flights added for tour operators

HAVING OPERATED under the radar since launching here in April, Belgian-owned airline Europe Airpost yesterday revealed plans to expand its charter flights from Ireland in 2011 in response to increased demand from tour operators here.

At a briefing in the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, yesterday, its French chief executive Jean- François Dominiak said the Irish travel market was “increasing despite the [economic] crisis”. So his company is expanding to meet the extra demand.

Europe Airpost has one aircraft based in Dublin and is on course to carry 50,000 passengers this year.

The Paris-based charter company operates flights for a number of tour operators here, including Sunway, Tui, Topflight and Joe Walsh Tours, and will generate revenues of about €4.5 million this year.

It now plans to fly from Cork – with an aircraft based in Edinburgh that is used for cargo drops by the Royal Mail on weekdays – at weekends from next summer.

Many of Europe Airpost’s aircraft operate as “quick-change” aircraft.

This involves using them part of the time for cargo and, for the balance, as passenger aircraft

This neat change of use takes just 20 minutes to complete. It involves only three workers to reconfigure the interior from a cargo plane to a 147-seat passenger aircraft.

That puts Ryanair’s quick turnaround of aircraft into the shade.

Europe Airpost also plans to add flights to a number of sun destinations, including Malaga, Izmir and Heraklion in Greece.

The expansion will take passenger numbers to about 85,000 and revenues to more than €8 million.

Europe Airpost is a sister company of Air Contractors, a cargo operator headquartered in Dublin, under the umbrella of ASL Aviation.

Air Contractors is believed to have run the rule over Aer Arann recently but Dominiak declined to comment on that yesterday.

However, it is in the final stages of acquiring the Denis O’Brien- owned aircraft leasing company, Safair, which is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

This deal was announced in September subject to certain “consents”, but Dominiak said details of the deal would be revealed in the coming days.

“This will give us three airlines,” Dominiak said.

And O’Brien a tidy windfall.

Curran beat two others to RTÉ's top

RTÉ’S APPOINTMENT last week of Noel Curran as its new director general will have been welcomed by many within Montrose.

Curran was always highly regarded within RTÉ and seen as a future DG, before his surprise decision to leave earlier this year.

RTÉ threw the net far and wide to find a successor to Cathal Goan, via executive search firm Merc.

Curran is believed to have been one of three candidates who met the full board of RTÉ – the others being from Canada and New Zealand.

This week, I became aware that ex-Sky executive Gerry O’Sullivan was tapped for the post.

O’Sullivan, an Englishman with Irish roots, was director of strategic product development at Sky, playing a role in developing its high-definition and 3D services. He saw the position as a “dream job”, especially with RTÉ preparing for digital switchover.

He was interviewed twice and described the process as “thorough”.

While Curran is clearly a good choice as DG, it would have been interesting to see how an outsider would have shaped what is considered by many to be a sleepy organisation in need of reform.

LITTLE THINGS

WE MIGHT be broke as a nation, but we continue to do our bit for charity.

Yesterday, 70 Irish people headed from Dublin to Ethiopia to raise money for Orbis, a Third World sight charity. They will take part in a 10k run at 10,000 ft above sea level that should net €210,000 for Orbis.

The party included Michael Holland, owner of the Fitzwilliam Hotel in Dublin, Drury PR chief Anne-Marie Curran and TV3’s Aidan Cooney.

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It’s been a good week for Irishman Paul Kelly, who has been appointed as managing director of Selfridges Group, Brown Thomas’s parent. The Galen Weston-owned retailer this week agreed to acquire the posh Dutch department store group de Bijenkorf, which has 12 shops. Kelly will have responsibility for Brown Thomas, Selfridges in Britain, Holt Renfrew in Canada and de Bijenkorf.

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Some good news this week for Irish company WestLan Solutions, which has netted a contract with the Aviva Stadium to provide advanced cabling for its various communications needs. WestLan had revenues last year of €2.2 million, and also has contracts with Aldi and waste group Indaver.