RYANAIR BOSS AND billionaire Michael O’Leary has written to the Irish Times, criticising one of the newspaper’s columnist, for “slagging” him over his opinions on Dublin’s Metrolink.

O’Leary and fellow billionaire Dermot Desmond have said the cost of the multi-billion-euro transport project is unjustifiable. They have questioned its popularity and whether future advancements in other transport technology will make it obsolete.

Irish Times columnist Justine McCarthy wrote last week that their comments “show you can be rich and wrong”, and claimed there was a “tang of Marie Antoinette’s ‘let them eat cake’” about the tone of their remarks.

In a response to the newspaper today, O’Leary made it clear that he did not appreciate the remarks. He repeatedly cited an inflated price tag of the Dublin transport project.

The airline owner questioned how Ireland could “seriously consider wasting approximately €20 billion of taxpayer money”. 

A €23 billion price tag first-appeared in a ministerial briefing to Darragh O’Brien earlier this year, a figure that was a ‘potential upper range’ cost but was not the estimated cost.

The Journal‘s FactCheck has previously highlighted that the figure is a misleading claim. There is a 95% chance the figure will not go above €23 billion – but the more-likely price range is between €7.16 billion and €12.25 billion.

Throughout his letter, he criticised the columnist and questioned what expertise she held in transport when compared to him and Desmond, who was previously involved in the 2006 redevelopment of London City Airport in the UK.

He added: “If the next time Ms McCarthy wants to offer an opinion on government transport projects, perhaps she could address the cost benefit of the project, rather than slagging off two successful – albeit opinionated – business people.”

Referring to himself and Desmond, he added: “But sadly we are both guilty of ‘being rich’, so therefore dismissed by The Irish Times ‘experts’, who know so much more about transport.”

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He said the Metrolink was a ‘white elephant’ and claimed that there were “far better uses of taxpayer funds”. He maintained his opinion that the cost of the Metrolink “cannot be justified”.

O’Leary also sought to dispel assertions by the columnist that he was opposed to the construction Dublin Airport’s second runway, clarifying that he was only opposed to the location of the new tarmac.

Last month, transport minister O’Brien noted that while the Ryanair boss is a “successful” businessman, he believed O’Leary is wrong about the MetroLink. He claimed that the transport project would enable future economic development.

Brian Caulfield, a professor in transportation at Trinity College Dublin, told The Journal last week that the passenger volume of trains, such as the Metrolink, can’t be bested. He said the project was best-in-class, compared with any future transport developments.