Smiling pictures of Noel Hanlon standing with various international VIPs like Bill Clinton and George W Bush were stacked against the wall in the chairman's office at Dublin Airport yesterday.

Each one was carefully swathed in bubble wrap before being transported from the offices in Mr Hanlon's car. Mr Hanlon says Bill Clinton was the most "interesting character I've ever met" and even yesterday the chairman was still greeting people - this time the returning Irish Paralympics team.

But from today, US presidents and other dignitaries landing at Dublin Airport will no longer be greeted by the 64-year-old from Longford. Instead, they will be greeted by someone from the Dublin Airport authority.

After 10 years as chairman of Aer Rianta and 23 years on various State boards, Mr Hanlon was yesterday clearing out his office.

While refusing to gloat, there was little doubt the chairman was not greatly saddened by the Taoiseach's decision to shift Séamus Brennan into the lower profile Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs.

Asked about the effects of Government policy on the company he is leaving, the departing chairman denounced the changes.

"The company has been seriously damaged by what in my opinion is a reckless piece of legislation, that is the only way I can describe it."

Asked why the legislation came about in the first place, he said: "He didn't have the proper advice obviously. He didn't take the proper advice. He was driven more by an ideological desire to get his opinions through, rather than what was best for the company. Clearly what he did was not best for the company."

Mr Hanlon is clearly angry about the terms of the State Airports Act and its provision that current Aer Rianta chief executive Ms Margaret Sweeney must apply in an open competition to secure the same position in the new Dublin Airport authority.

He says this decision was only taken because the Minister and his officials never wanted Ms Sweeney. But the recent package agreed with her should not have been the subject of controversy, he claims.

"It was despicable the way the Minister went on national television and said I haven't approved this, despite the fact that the Minister for Finance was the shareholder and he approved it."

He says the row was almost irrelevant. "In effect the board didn't need any ministerial approval on it. Its an internal affair." He says the terms of the package have been "agreed and paid" to Ms Sweeney.

He claims the influence of Ryanair played a part in the decisions of recent months by Mr Brennan. "I'd say he was hugely influenced by one of our major customers ."

Mr Hanlon has taken some comfort from this week's reshuffle. "I feel totally vindicated and justified in the stand I took. Obviously, the Government was of the same view and the Taoiseach was of the same view when he removed him from Transport."

Mr Hanlon, a close friend of former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, claims he maintains healthy relationships with other senior Fianna Fáil ministers, including Charlie McCreevy,Brian Cowen and the Taoiseach.

"I found support among all ministers I have been involved with. I have been working for 23 years with State organisations and I have never met a more difficult or belligerent Minister and I don't mind saying that. I don't want to criticise the Minister too much, he is gone now, but I have been totally vindicated in everything I said and stood for over the years."

Mr Hanlon strongly denies he leaked a story in 2002 alleging Mr Brennan ran up a €5,000 bill with Aer Rianta for cigars and brandy. Mr Brennan was ultimately exonerated of these allegations, but some sources believe the incident soured relationships between the two men.

"It had absolutely nothing to do with me. That came from another source. I didn't know anything about it until I read it in the paper. I was blamed for that, but it had nothing to do with me."

Mr Hanlon claims the Minister wanted him removed from Aer Rianta regardless. "I am full sure he was trying to get me out of this job," he states. "It was very personal against me, he made no bones to journalists that he wanted to get rid of me, from what I understood and heard back."

While Mr Hanlon is highly critical of Mr Brennan, his officials do not escape unscathed. "It is clear you have a Ministry of Transport there, where the senior civil servants in it don't have the vision or the ability to promote policy in the aviation sector. If the new Minister does not change the senior civil servants in charge of that division, he is going to have serious problems."

He says setting policy is the job of these officials, but "it is not their job to run it on a day-to-day basis".

Asked whether there was still time to reverse the recent changes, Mr Hanlon was unambiguous. "It can of course be reversed. I mean the name the Dublin Airport authority can be changed back to Aer Rianta at the drop of a hat."

Mr Hanlon says the airport is creaking at the seams and health and safety is starting to become a major issue. He says Dublin airport now handles 17 million people, but he acknowledges that congestion has reached crisis point.

"We are a third world airport, that is the level we are at."

While Ryanair and Aer Lingus are the two biggest customers, Mr Hanlon describes Michael O'Leary as using bullying tactics on Government ministers and Aer Rianta.

"Of course he has tried to bully people. He tried to bully the Taoiseach, it was worst form of bullying. For the chief executive of a publicly-quoted company to lower himself to that level - there is no shareholder control, no board control," he says.

He is also less than impressed by Aer Lingus becoming a low cost operator and no longer providing certain services.

"While Aer Lingus needed to be restructured, in my opinion they have done things that should never be done by an airline - like when your dearly beloved dies they will not transfer the remains. I think it is a disgrace that a national airline should refuse to carry deceased people.

"And now they are refusing to carry Irish mail abroad. I think they are destroying their own brand. And I don't agree with them doing away with their uniform, even Ryanair has a uniform and they are the cheap of the cheap," he states.

"It all seems to be driven by profit, rather than by other things that should drive it, apart from profit."

As for his own future: "I'll take it easy for a few weeks and then see what I'll do. I have lots of business interests. I have lots of property in Dublin and lots of property in Longford.

Asked would he like to serve on another State board, he replies. "I have given 23 years now. I mean if I was asked I probably would, but I wouldn't be looking for anything. I have given almost a lifetime of service to the State."I would need a job that I was interested in. If something came up that I was interested in, and I was asked, I probably would do it."