Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary has called for an immediate rescue plan for Ireland’s aviation and tourism industry, saying the carrier has “no faith” in the country’s transport secretary.
The Irish government on Friday is due to ease Covid-19 measures to help the country’s industries get back on their feet in June and July.
The budget airline called for the UK Common Travel area to be restored from June 1 and people travelling to and from Ireland to be exempt from hotel quarantine and other Covid-19 restrictions from July 1.
O’Leary, Ryanair Group chief executive, said: “This government has visited untold damage on Irish aviation and tourism.
“Ireland has a minister for transport who has no plan, no policy and no commitment to aviation.
“Ireland is an island on the periphery of Europe, yet our transport minister has sat on an Aviation Recovery Plan since July 2020, but taken no action at all.
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“Ryanair has no faith in minister Eamonn Ryan, who has shown himself to be ineffective and not up to the job.”
O’Leary also said it was time for government to introduce an emergency rescue plan for Irish aviation and tourism and for taoiseach Micheál Martin and tanaiste Leo Varadkar to “reopen” Ireland.
Earlier this week the transport minister suggested pre-flight testing and mandatory quarantining could be scrapped – before an EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate, which will provide proof that a person has been vaccinated, is made available.
He said: “Given that the [previously called] Digital Green Certificate might not be in widespread use until at least mid-August, it would not seem reasonable to expect fully-vaccinated people to wait for the Digital Green Certificate before allowing freedom from current pre-arrival PCR and quarantine requirements.”