'I won't be signing that off': Minister won't agree to payout of over €1m to Kenny Jacobs

TRANSPORT MINISTER DARRAGH O’Brien has said he expects the DAA board and executive to “try and work through” the bitter boardroom rift involving chief executive Kenny Jacobs. 

The battle has dominated headlines in recent months, and more recently, the DAA year-end board meeting last week. 

The Business Post reported yesterday that an extraordinary meeting of the board of DAA is to take place today to formally suspend Jacobs with full pay, pending the outcome of an investigation. 

It had previously been reported that the battle between the DAA board and Jacobs could see him receive an exit package of up to €1.2 million. 

However, such a payout would have involved O’Brien, who is effectively the shareholder in State-owned DAA, and the Minister for Public Expenditure, Jack Chambers, signing off on the deal, something the transport minister has said he is not willing to do. 

Earlier this month, O’Brien took that payout off the table. 

Speaking to The Journal head of the extraordinary meeting today, the minister reiterated his standpoint, stating: 

“I’ve made my views pretty clear on this, that’s a lot of money. I’m not in a position to and I won’t be signing that off, okay, and they know that.” 

The minister was reluctant to comment further on the issues, particularly in light of an important meeting taking place today. However, he did add: 

“I’m the shareholder. I’m not the employer. I expect the employer and the board and the executive to work this through. The airport is still performing very well. I would expect that the board and executive need to try to work this through and I don’t know whether they can or not.”

He went on to state that the team behind Dublin Airport “is performing very well”, adding that in his view, the chief executive “has done a good job”. 

“But it appears to me that that difficulty between the board and the executive seems to be quite entrenched…

“What’s critical is not personalities. It’s not who’s on the board, not who the executive is, it’s that we’ve an airport that continues to function very well and can can grow, and can grow in a sustainable way that respects the local communities too.” 

When asked how much of a headache the whole debacle has been the last number of months, O’Brien said: 

“Well, look, I’d rather just be, which I am, focused on what we need to do at our airport and transport system.” 

He said the rest is a matter between the board and executive. 

Two protected disclosures were made against Jacobs in February and March. Neither was upheld in an investigation by Senior Counsel Mark Connaughton. 

A mediation process was previously commenced between the board and the chief executive under the chairmanship of industrial relations veteran Kieran Mulvey.

The Journal sought comment from DAA and Kenny Jacobs. DAA declined to comment.