RYANAIR BOSS MICHAEL O’Leary has reiterated his comments deriding the number of former teachers serving as TDs while also saying Green party politicians need to be “weeded out” of politics.
O’Leary spoke to Newstalk this morning following widespread condemnation of remarks he made at the launch of Fine Gael TD Peter Burke’s election campaign over the weekend. O’Leary said he wouldn’t hire teachers “to go and get things done”.
Primary teaching union the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation condemned O’Leary’s remarks, labelling them “outrageous” and “insulting”.
“I think teachers do a great job in the classroom, but I’m not sure that teachers in the Dáil are necessarily the best people to deliver the kind of change and enterprise we need,” he said today.
He took aim at Green Party Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin, a former teacher, saying:
“I think Catherine Martin would be far better off back in the classroom, doing the valuable work that teachers do, and as far away from the reins of government or making decisions where I think she’s clearly failed.”
O’Leary said “we need different professions, and certainly a better mix of professions in the Dáil if we’re going to deliver for a population that’s rising rapidly over the next decade.”
He said that people should vote for Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil and transfer between the two parties.
“I think nobody should vote for the greens because they’ve been like weeds in our economy over the last five years, and they need to be weeded out. And I would ignore Sinn Fein because if they clearly can’t run their own party effectively or efficiently, what chance have they of running a government?”
Defending his comments once again, O’Leary said, “All I was doing was launching Peter Burke’s campaign in Mullingar and if there’s been a pile on subsequently by the teachers union and the Sinn Féin and all the left wing tree huggers, and I must have said something right.”
Responding to O’Leary’s original remarks, Tánaiste Micheál Martin, a former teacher, said they were “insulting and fail to recognise the enormous contribution they have made to Irish society, economy and enterprise.”
Taoiseach Simon Harris also responded by saying he did not agree with O’Leary.
