{"id":129066,"date":"2025-10-17T23:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T23:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/129066\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T23:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T23:33:08","slug":"daa-board-views-payout-to-ceo-kenny-jacobs-as-lower-cost-settlement-option-with-reduced-risks-minister-told-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/129066\/","title":{"rendered":"DAA board views payout to CEO Kenny Jacobs as lower cost settlement option with reduced risks, minister told \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The DAA <\/a>board found chief executive Kenny Jacobs<\/a> unsuitable to continue in his post before entering talks on a deal for him to leave the business, The Irish Times has learned. <\/p>\n

The State-owned operator of Dublin<\/a> and Cork airports reached a draft agreement with Mr Jacobs five weeks ago in which he would stand down on January 3rd and receive a payment of \u20ac960,000. <\/p>\n

It is understood that this does not include legal fees, which will be met separately by the company. The deal reached at mediation has been unanimously approved by the DAA board. <\/p>\n

However, the money remains subject to approval from Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien<\/a> and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The DAA told the Government of the terms in September. Because of political sensitivity over a big exit payment for a semi-state chief executive leaving his post early, the matter is considered unlikely to be resolved before the presidential election next Friday.<\/p>\n

In a recent briefing for Mr O\u2019Brien and Department of Transport<\/a> officials, a DAA board delegation set out how concerns emerged about some of Mr Jacobs\u2019 language and behaviour before directors reached the conclusion that he was unsuitable. <\/p>\n

The breakdown in relations between the board and Mr Jacobs comes less than three years into his seven-year term as chief executive.<\/p>\n

The Minister was told the exit payment should be judged not in terms of fairness to Mr Jacobs and more in terms of the value to DAA of returning to routine business after a period of turmoil.<\/p>\n

The alternative of not approving the settlement would expose the DAA and the State, as company shareholder, to significant legal and reputational risk, more costs and distraction from the board\u2019s strategic work, the Minister was told.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien was accompanied at the October 3rd meeting by Department of Transport secretary general, Ken Spratt and two officials. The DAA was represented by chairman, Basil Geoghegan and non-executive directors, Paula Cogan, Karen Morton and Risteard Sheridan.<\/p>\n

There was no comment from Mr O\u2019Brien\u2019s spokeswoman. DAA said its policy was not to comment on board matters or engagements with the Minister. Mr Jacobs had no comment on board discussions with Mr O\u2019Brien. <\/p>\n

The exit deal follows mediation between the DAA and Mr Jacobs that began after a senior barrister\u2019s investigation into two formal complaints about the chief executive\u2019s behaviour and a business matter. <\/p>\n

The disclosures were made under whistleblower law that protects complainants from dismissal or penalisation for reporting possible wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

The complaints were not upheld. But the Minister was told of board concern about Mr Jacobs\u2019 response to the protected disclosure process.<\/p>\n

The DAA delegation set out further board concern about the emergence of other issues separate to those raised in the formal complaints.<\/p>\n

These included, but were not limited to, questions over certain information from Mr Jacobs to board members. There was further concern over proposed changes, later scrapped, to DAA policy on the provision of wheelchairs to passengers with restricted movement.<\/p>\n

The meeting was told Mr Jacobs was offered an opportunity to consider his behaviour. Still, DAA directors concluded he had not showed appropriate understanding of the issues or a way forward to address them.<\/p>\n

When the board concluded Mr Jacobs was unsuitable to continue, mediation was seen as one of three options. The alternatives included a full investigation into the other issues that had emerged after the protected disclosures.<\/p>\n

Advice to the DAA board was that mediation was a superior and, ultimately, lower cost option because it could reduce reputational risk and open better prospects of controlling the process.<\/p>\n

The board found it would be better to pursue a settlement in line with its perceived need to restore effective control. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The DAA board found chief executive Kenny Jacobs unsuitable to continue in his post before entering talks on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,38997,2914,24001,26,18,19,17,26736,40609],"class_list":{"0":"post-129066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-daa","10":"tag-darragh-o-brien","11":"tag-department-of-transport","12":"tag-dublin-airport","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-jack-chambers","17":"tag-kenny-jacobs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129066","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=129066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}