{"id":109690,"date":"2025-10-08T21:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T21:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/109690\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T21:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T21:32:09","slug":"obrien-says-he-had-detailed-and-frank-talks-with-daa-chair-and-board-over-issues-at-company-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/109690\/","title":{"rendered":"O\u2019Brien says he had \u2018detailed and frank\u2019 talks with DAA chair and board over issues at company \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien<\/a> has said he had a \u201cdetailed and frank\u201d meeting with the chairman of airport operator DAA and three board members on issues that had arisen regarding the running of the company.<\/p>\n

He said he had called in the chairman and the board members for talks on foot of a report he had recently received.<\/p>\n

Sources said DAA <\/a>submitted this report to the Department of Transport on foot of a recent dispute between the board and the company\u2019s chief executive Kenny Jacobs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Kenny Jacobs and the DAA: How chief executive who \u2018shook things up\u2019 ran out of runwayOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Irish Times reported last month that, following a mediation process, the DAA board had signed off on a deal which would see Mr Jacobs receive close to \u20ac1 million as part of a voluntary departure from the airport operator.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a budget press conference on Wednesday, Mr O\u2019Brien said he had called in DAA chairman Basil Geoghegan and three board directors to meet him and his officials last week.<\/p>\n

He said he wanted \u201cto get a better understanding of the situation there\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am assessing a report which I recently received and I questioned them on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it stands right now, the airport is operating well and I want see that continue to happen. I will deal with the issues that have arisen once I have reviewed that report and the options within it with my colleague the Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said, I met the chair and three directors last week and we had a very detailed and frank meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Transport did not provide any clarification on the report or the options which the Minister said it contained.<\/p>\n

Asked about the report which the Minister said had been received, the Department of Transport in a statement on Wednesday: \u201cMinister O\u2019Brien met the Chair and members of the DAA board last Friday. The report referenced at the press conference was an oral update provided by the Chair and Board members present. The Minister will not be commenting further at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Jacobs (51), a former Ryanair executive, took charge of DAA at the start of 2023. <\/p>\n

However, in recent weeks, it emerged that a significant rift had developed between the chief executive and the board of the airport operator.<\/p>\n

Last month, the former head of the Workplace Relations Commission Kieran Mulvey was called in to act as mediator in the dispute.<\/p>\n

Any exit deal for Mr Jacobs would require the approval of both Mr O\u2019Brien as Minister for Transport and Mr Chambers as Minister for Public Expenditure.<\/p>\n

DAA has been contacted for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien has said he had a \u201cdetailed and frank\u201d meeting with the chairman of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[10471,79,13458,24001,40608,18,19,17,40609],"class_list":{"0":"post-109690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-darragh-obrien","11":"tag-department-of-transport","12":"tag-dublin-airport-authority","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-kenny-jacobs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}