Michael O’Leary caused controversy after asking teachers to stay away from politics

However, the Ryanair chairman has caused a political storm by attacking his latest target: teachers turned politicians.

O’Leary said Ireland needs fewer teachers in the lower house of parliament, known as the Dáil, as he spoke at an event for the centre-right political party Fine Gael.

Ireland will go to the polls on November 29 to elect a new government after the ruling Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Green Party coalition announced an early election.

“The Dáil has a lot of teachers. There is nothing wrong with teachers. I love teachers, but in general I wouldn’t hire a lot of teachers to go out and get the job done.”

O’Leary doubled down on his comments on Monday, saying Newstalk radio station: “A Dáil where there is an abundance of teachers is not necessarily one that will get things done.”

The Ryanair boss wants more businessmen involved in politics, who he says are better trained to bring about change in government.

“I want to see more people coming into the Dáil from private business, from the private sector and that is the energy we need if we are to tackle the infrastructure challenges we face,” he said. .

The comments have caused Fine Gael to back down. Ireland’s Prime Minister, Simon Harris, and the leader of the party O’Leary is supporting, called his comments “crude and ignorant”.

Opposition leader, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald, said: “Teachers get the job done every day in the classroom for our students.

“I think it was completely inappropriate for them to be ridiculed and humiliated in the way they were at a Fine Gael event,” she said.

On Newstalk, O’Leary was challenged on whether he thought Micheál Martin, the former prime minister and the candidate O’Leary is supporting, should leave politics.

O’Leary responded that there are “exceptions to every rule,” pointing out that he “doesn’t necessarily agree” with Donald Trump, a businessman who has entered politics.

Teachers are among the most represented groups in the Dáil, a point noted in 2020 by Paul Byrne, former deputy director of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals.

He said at the time.

Along with Martin, former prime minister Enda Kenny is a former teacher. Michael D. Higgins, who was an Irishman Chairman since 2011is a former lecturer at the University of Ireland, Galway.

O’Leary revived the passenger helmet complaint

There seemed to be personal vendetta in O’Leary’s motive, as he used Ireland’s tourism minister, Catherine Martin, as an example of a former teacher who he thought should have stayed in the classroom.

“She has been Minister of Tourism for five years and what has she brought? A baseball cap at Dublin airport. Now we cannot develop tourism anymore.”

Dublin Airport has a hat up to 32 million passengers a year despite the opening of a second runway allowing for 60 million passengers, a point that deeply disappointed O’Leary at Ryanair’s main airport.

“I think Catherine Martin would be much better off returning to the classroom to do the valuable work that teachers do and away from government control of decision making, where I think she is clear failed.”