\u2018This refusal sends out the wrong message to the public,\u2019 says Joint Oireachtas Transport Committee\u2019s Michael Murphy\n<\/p>\n
Chief executive Kenny Jacobs and DAA chair Basil Geoghegan were asked this week by the committee to appear next Wednesday to discuss governance issues at the company which operates Dublin Airport and Cork Airport.<\/p>\n
However, DAA confirmed that invitation has been declined, telling the committee it is not in a position to engage at this time “given ongoing matters that have not yet reached a conclusion and the inevitable legal constraints that would impose on DAA attendees”.<\/p>\n
The DAA holds a board meeting in Cork tomorrow. The DAA has confirmed that Mr Jacobs will attend the board meeting. It declined to say if the current crisis is on the agenda and if it is, whether Mr Jacobs would absent himself from such a portion of the meeting.<\/p>\n
The chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Fine Gael TD Michael Murphy, described the refusal to appear before the committee as \u201cdeeply disappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the committee \u201cwas not going away\u201d on the issue and would now have to examine avenues including potential parliamentary powers to force an appearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cDublin Airport is a national gateway, the front door to Ireland, and with that comes responsibility to answer reasonable questions in a public forum,\u201d said Mr Murphy.<\/p>\n
\u201cRefusing to engage with the Oireachtas transport committee does nothing to build confidence in the governance of the airport,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s all about fronting up, not closing doors and it\u2019s regrettable that they have closed the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
Relations between Mr Jacobs and Mr Geoghegan have deteriorated in recent months. Earlier this year, two complaints were made under the DAA’s protective disclosures policy in relation to Mr Jacobs. Neither of the complaints were upheld.<\/p>\n
An agreement has been reached between Mr Jacobs and the board that would see him secure a roughly \u20ac1m exit package and leave in January. By then, he would be just three years into a seven-year term as CEO.<\/p>\n
That deal has to be signed off by Transport Minister Darragh O\u2019Brien and Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe committee will have to now consider what actions are open to us in terms of ensuring that necessary accountability,\u201d said Mr Murphy. \u201cWhether that\u2019s re-issuing the invitation or possibly exploring other parliamentary avenues, but I\u2019m very clear \u2013 the transport committee is not going away on this.\u201d<\/p>\n
He warned: \u201cThe DAA will have to account to the Oireachtas in some form. This isn\u2019t about confrontation. It\u2019s about transparency. An open conversation always strengthens credibility and in this case, the credibility of the DAA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis refusal sends out the wrong message to the public,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about the severance package. For me, it\u2019s more about what appears to be a breakdown between the CEO and the board and trying to understand what has happened there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Jacobs\u2019 loss of support at board level left him in an increasingly uncertain position but DAA staff were told in an internal memo today, that he \u201cis and remains the DAA\u2019s CEO\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the event of any mutual agreement being agreed and approved, we will update you,\u201d the circular added. \u201cAs always, our focus is, and will continue to be, on our business, passengers and customers, and any change would take place over an agreed timeframe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018This refusal sends out the wrong message to the public,\u2019 says Joint Oireachtas Transport Committee\u2019s Michael Murphy Chief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,38997,26,18,19,17,24512],"class_list":{"0":"post-72349","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-dublin-airport","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-john-mulligan"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72349","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=72349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}