Michael O'Leary, the loud-mouthed multimillionaire chief executive of Ryanair, plainly believes that if you lob more than €14 million into the State's coffers you are entitled to publicly lampoon the head of the Government, writes Siobhán Creaton, Finance Correspondent
Yesterday he again very publicly vented his growing frustration with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, driving home his point by making the cheque payable to "Dithering Bertie". He made it clear this wasn't a personal gift for the man he likes to call the "Prime Minister", but was in fact to cover his personal taxes for this year, which were due yesterday.
Mr O'Leary has had the Taoiseach in his sights for a while and plans to publicly criticise him in London next week when Ryanair announces its results. It is for the benefit of the British media that he refers to him as the Prime Minister, he says. "When I kick him in the goolies next week in London there will be no point talking about the Taoiseach."
When asked if he thought Mr Ahern might find the term offensive he replied: "I hope so".
Mr O'Leary insisted that his €14 million personal cheque wasn't the real story but rather it was the time that had been wasted on reaching a decision about the second terminal, for which he flatly puts the blame on the Taoiseach.
"The Government got 13 expressions of interest about building a terminal at Dublin Airport last year and not one centimetre of progress has been made. The government has lost out on 5,000 new jobs and over €100 million in additional tax revenue that could go towards Ireland's hospitals and schools.
"We have had to wait 12 months for any decision from Bertie's Government. We are not going to wait another 12 months. It's time for Bertie to start leading, to start making decisions and to give us competition. We are paying enough tax for it."
The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, this week hit back at Mr O'Leary's harsh criticism of the Taoiseach, saying the decision on the second terminal could not be made until he brought it to the Cabinet. He has said he intends to push the proposal forward before Christmas.
The Ryanair boss suggested that this latest publicity stunt was nothing to do with highlighting the fact that he pays his taxes in Ireland while other wealthy entrepreneurs have chosen to live overseas.
"This is not an attack on those individuals. It is perfectly legal and I don't see any particular difficulties with it. A lot of those individuals have created a lot of wealth for the country," he says.
More than 50 per cent of Ryanair's business is based in the UK but O'Leary appears reticent to vent his spleen at the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair. "I choose my targets carefully. Tony Blair took out Saddam," he explains.
