THE CORK AIRPORT SCANDAL
This story is a real gem and is the classic illustration of how semi-state companies are run in this country. It runs as follows: Joe Gantly is the Chairman of the new board of Cork Airport which is a bunch of political appointees. We will go through their qualifications shortly but suffice to say for the moment that they are a bunch of well-intentioned ignoramuses. Just in case anyone more experienced might try and tell them anything they have appointed a Manager, Pat Keohane, who while on the face of it has a good industrial track record has absolutely zero airport experience as well. And just to emphasise their lack of confidence in his ability they did not even let him near the Board. Joe Gantly - as far as I know the unemployed Chairman of Cork Airport Board - went off on a solo run and suddenly it was announced that he had done a fantastic deal with Ryanair which was going to achieve miracles for Cork Airport and which had two basic tenets: (a) Ryanair would make Cork Airport their new base and hopefully pay very low airport charges and (b) Aer Arann would be forced out of Cork Airport and hopefully out of business. To say that Joe's Board of Directors were miffed is an understatement as they were not even consulted but not one of them has the guts to object. They are the sort of people who would be afraid to cross the road in front of my car because they would not want to show if they had any guts. As for the Aer Rianta Board in Dublin - sorry Dublin Airport Authority - they could not care less about Cork and all they want is to get rid of it as quickly as possible. The only people who could enter into such an agreement are the Dublin Airport Authority Board and they say they know nothing about it. In short, the deal is a fraud and a scam. There are of course no kickbacks (normally 10% in Ireland) involved. But it does seem strange that nobody has opened their mouth about the deal especially Minister Cullen.
Let's review the Board of Dublin Airport Authority, the people responsible for running Cork Airport not to mention giving Ireland a third world airport in Dublin which is arguably one of the biggest self-inflicted messes in the world.
Gary Mc Cann is Chairman of Cork Airport (and Dublin Airport and Shannon Airport). He is the ideal person for running the Dublin Airport Authority which loses its shirt and costs the taxpayer a fortune. When Group Chief Executive of Aer Lingus from 1994 to 1998 I seem to recall it lost millions and millions and he did sweet damn all about it, just as he is now doing about Dublin Airport. Totally incompetent - but one of the boys. He and his board could sort out a lot of the problems in Dublin Airport in the morning if they wanted to but they are so ignorant they just sit there like ostriches with their heads in the sand. The reason an ostrich puts his head in the sand is because he has a lot of neck and by god, the Dublin Airport Authority all have.
He and his board are offered a 200 million pound terminal for free. No, they would prefer to build their own disaster when the taxpayer could have had a free ride. There is no economic logic to the way he and his board are going at it. If the current airport is the result of their best efforts then the new one will be even worse. Fortunately they have no real plans.
Next Oliver Cussen. A civil servant until he joined Aer Rianta and who never had to fight to make a bob in his life. No airport experience of course. Never worked in an airport in his life. Totally incompetent. Being a Dublin civil servant probably knows nobody in Cork Airport and lucky if he even knows where it is.
Michael Landers, the next director of Cork Airport, has and I quote from Dublin Airport Authority "experience of representing members throughout the aviation industry". Translation : He is partly responsible for the current Dublin Airport he mess. Absolutely ideal for Cork.
Colm Barrington comes with an impressive pedigree from GPA. That outfit was run by lunatics who finally went spectacularly broke in a big way so he ahs vast experience fo another outfit that went bankrupt.
Mary Davis is National Director of the Special Olympics of Ireland. Just what we need in an airport director particularly one in Cork! She is current Chairperson of - wait for it - St. Patricks Festival. Excellent! Dublin Airport looks like the remains of a festival grounds after a festival and she should be right at home in the mess. What in Gods name is the director of Special Olympics Ireland doing on an airport board? Totally useless. If she had any integrity she would get the hell out of the board right now.
Ah, now comes a gem. Marie O'Connor, Audit partner with Price Waterhouse Cooper the crowd who produce fraudelent accounts for CIE Group year after year. In CIE they did not even bother to check the assets much less the amount of cash going to the bank against what is taken in.
Allow me to list only one scandal involving Price Waterhouse Cooper. In December 2003 a U.S. judge signed a $54.5 million settlement between Price Waterhouse Cooper and its former clients, Warmack-Muskogee Limited Partnership who claimed they were overbilled by the accounting company for travel expenses.
The plaintiffs were overcharged by as much as 50 percent. Its beginning to sound familiar is it not? "Defendants accomplished this overcharging by a stratagem that involved their negotiation of confidential relationships and arrangements with third-party travel vendors who provided defendants with invoices for travel costs or expenses, which did not reflect massive and secret kickbacks of as much as 40 percent". Quote from Court documents".
"The kickbacks were remitted by such vendors to, and improperly retained by, defendants, rather than being returned to the clients who paid for the underlying cost". The accounting firm used the amounts identified on the invoices provided by the vendors as the basis to seek "reimbursement" from their clients of alleged "out-of-pocket costs."
This included airlines, ticketing and reservations systems, hotels, car rental agencies, restaurants, travel agencies and credit card issuers. So she comes from a firm of impeccable pedigree. If we are going to fiddle the accounts then why not get on the Board someone from a firm with vast experience of these techniques? She is absolutely perfect. They have also been involved in some rather, some people would say false and fraudulent, audits of big companies and have been well censored internationally. An absolutely ideal background for the Dublin Airport Authority who has not a clue what they are doing about terminals, no idea what they will cost and much less what they will earn. They remind one of the person who bought a pair of water skis and then went around looking for a lake with a slope to practice on!
What did her firm do for the 275,000 euro which the Board of Cork Airport gave them last year? I have a sneaky feeling not very much. I don't suppose the fact that her firm gets 275,000 euro per annum from Dublin Airport Authority would have any influence on her thinking. Perish the thought! She is an independent director naturally. Excuse me for a moment while I nearly die laughing. In my book if her firm of consultants are screwing the airport for 275,000 per annum then she has no place on the board. What are the airport staff for who are far more competent?
OK, let's accept the ridiculous notion that Marie O'Connor is competent for a moment. What has she done about the disastrous design of the new terminal at Cork Airport. What did she do when she was warned the concrete was defective? Don't you think a prudent director would have at least asked what was the argument that it was defective? What consultations has she had with the users of the airport? Answers on a pin head please. To be fair there would not be much point doing any of those things as she would not have a clue, an essential item to be on the board of Cork Airport.
Who next? Bill Cullen. A Renault expert who knows sweet damn all about airports. However he is a successful author which should give him some talent for writing fantasies otherwise known as the story of Dublin Airport. Brilliant and most useful background!
Then there is Arthur Hall representing craft workers at the airports which hardly makes him independent and of course he too shares the blame for the current mess at the airports. Most of the problem at Dublin airport is due to the unions so he has to take part of the blame.
Anthony Spollen was Head of Group Internal Audit at AIB which is very useful when you consider the absolutely immense losses in AIB that were racked up on his watch. Of course he neither noticed or was responsible for them. Absolutely ideal for an outfit which has no system and racks up fantastic losses. It was reported to him that the great Readymix Plc - a bunch of gangsters also - were fiddling the concrete in the new terminal at Cork and that the building might fall down in ten years time. He elected to take no action. Now that is the type of guy we need. The sort that if all the toilets in the airport got stolen he would not investigate because he would have nothing to go on!
How about Des Cummins who is Chairman of the Cummins Group that employs - wait for it - over 50 people in two countries. This vast experience of staff will enable him to bring his fantastic expertise to bear on staff problems at Dublin Airport. He is also a member of Comhar, the National Sustainable Development Partnership, a totally useless outfit. Good experience that for Cork.
Ah, but now we have the token expertise of none other than Sir Michael Hodgkinson, BART. - that really sounds good - with vast experience of the motor and food industries in Europe. Maybe he could sort out the restaurants and maybe clean Dublin Airport up but he is an executive and does not dirty his hands. For that matter he could not even be bothered going to 25% of the Board meetings of DAA. Well, I suppose if you do not go you cannot be blamed! What the hell are we doing with him on our board when he does not even go near Cork Airport? Probably for that matter does not know where Cork is! I asked some staff at Cork Airport if they knew him. Not alone did they not know him, but they never even heard of him. Now that is what you call an active Director when he is so upper class he could not be bothered meeting the peasants of Cork whose lives he helps control. He calls it management without consultation. I call it no management.
And lastly Linda Tanham another bloody useless union official who is definitely biased and in no way competent to be on the Board.
These morons, ladies and gentleman are the people currently responsible for Cork Airport. Not one of them is competent and none have actually worked in an airport. Ally that with a Chief Excutive who knows nothing about the airport and you have a recipe for disaster. Dublin Airport Authority is a lunatic asylum run by the inmates aided and abetted by a moronic board. (Definition of a Moron : A lift operator who forgot his route!)
But if you think that shower are bad, you should see what a rum lot are coming in on the new board in Cork allegedly to run the 400 million euro airport. Its worth taking a look at their pedigree which takes some beating.
Who shall we start with? How about Humphrey Murphy whose claim to fame lies in stainless steel, to wit Global Stainless. I need hardly say the training to supply stainless steel is absolutely invaluable to an airport. On the other hand he is Miceal Martins constituency organiser who gets rewarded with these plum jobs so as to be Mickeys eyes and ears. The fact that he is totally useless is of course completely irrelevant. Its called jobs for the boys with a vengeance. And they do get fantastic travel perks.
Next we come to that eminent authority on airports Veronica Perdisant. She is Chairperson of the Kilkenny Group and cut her teeth in Ovens. What she is doing on the board is hard to imagine. Another know nothing.
How about Pat Dalton of Bord Gais. Another well known authority on airports, I don't think!
Now we have a real gem. Eoin Keane, fish exporter from Dingle. Cut his teeth working for Dingle Airport- Oh, I know Dingle does not exist but then neither does Dingle Airport - whose only claim to fame is that he is expert in objects that live in deep water and Cork Airport is in such deep water he should be a great help. Now you know why I think there is something fishy about the board.
Next on the most useful list is Loretta Glucksman. Now Loretta Glucksman really is a nice lady - and I mean that - and she has done a lot for Cork and has been most generous giving millions to U.C.C. Presumably she is on the board so that the rest will try and ask her to make up the deficit over the new terminal, which is going to be pretty horrendous. But lets call a spade a spade. She knows nothing about airports so what is she doing on the board? I am amazed someone of her excellent reputation would stoop to want to be on Cork Airport Board as I doubt she needs the travel privileges.
Don Cullinane is the only one of them with any business sense and at least he is in the travel industry but that is useless background for airport management. Don is pretty sound and not afraid to ask questions so I will withold judgement on him.
Of course we have Alf Smiddy who to be fair to him has an excellent record at Beamish. But what has it to do with airports? Sweet damn all.
The only reasonable thing about this board is that they have a number of airport workers who would have the airport at heart and will do their best but they simply do not have the experience to run a 400 million euro company, will be outsmarted by the others and probably gone native shortly after starting as all worker directors do. Anyhow why a board of a dozen people? It is unworkable.
So there is the Board past and present and it is debatable which is worse. I have also discovered that Minister Cullen has directed that NO STEPS steps be taken to make Cork Airport independent while he is in office and that CORK AIRPORT IS TO REMAIN AS PART OF THE DUBLIN AIRPORT AUTHORITY UNTIL AT LEAST AFTER THE NEXT ELECTION. That is the reality.
As for the deal to screw Aer Arann, who have served Cork faithfully and well since the Minister allowed our National carrier to shaft us, this is one of the most shameful deals done in years. Joe's deal could put them out of business and he knows it. Joe and/or his powerless, shameless board had no power to do the deal. It is utterly appalling that this type of deal should have been done by Joe on a solo run. The Board is a typical Cullen political exercise in futility to give the appearance of doing something. And even worse Minister Cullen knows about screwing Aer Arann and has backed him. So what is going on?
Let me go further. Minister Cullen has sanctioned Ryanair charging 5 cents - yes 5 cents - from Cork to Dublin against Aer Arann. Now he knows, - ignorant and all as he is - that nobody can run a service for 5c each way and it can have only one purpose - to destroy Aer Arann. If Aer Arann goes out of business, Cork will be the poorer for it and it will have been sanctioned by Minister Cullen and the Board of dimwits I have listed above. Michael O'Leary knows that Aer Arann is stretched at the moment and plans the killer blow.
Aer Arann is run by a decent man, Padraig O'Ceidigh, who needs support. He has stood by Cork, provided us with services which nobody else would and yet nobody in Cork is prepared to defend him. Already they have dropped their service from eleven to three flights per day from the start of Ryanair on the Cork to Dublin route thanks to Joe Gantly's action. A bloody disgrace! And don't give me any of that crap about free competition. Competition is fine but it must be fair. Being faced with 5 cent oneway by an opposition with huge pockets is neither fair, moral or just. Do I hear the competition authority investigating? Not bloody likely!
We do not need any of these people in Cork. We can run our own affairs if given the chance but quite obviously that is not about to happen. We shafted Joe O'Connor who was arguably the best Airport Manager Cork ever had and who had worked from the ground up and knew every nook and cranny in the airport as did his predecessor Barry Roche. Has it not occurred to anybody that the airport manager needs to come up through the ranks and have experience? Cork Airport has a very dedicated staff who take pride in their airport and are well able to run it. Dublin never consults with them or takes their advice. The Dublin Airport Authority should keep their hands off, allow us to have our own board of professionals, get rid of the political ignorant hacks and we will do a superb job.
Who is paying for the new terminal at Cork Airport? The Minister promised it would not be Cork but right now he is taking the money from the Cork Airport coffers. Why has he not the guts to tell the truth that he intends shafting Cork? Minister, tell us who is paying? You are afraid to say arent you?
We have a ill designed terminal, likely to fall down not to mention be a disaster for Cork financially. There was no consultation with the users and the design shows it.
In short God help us all in Cork at Cork Airport.
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