RYANAIR HAS CONDEMNED what it called a “mindless” attack after seven homes it owns for staff in a housing estate in Swords in Dublin were attacked overnight.

Wheelie bins were pulled in front of houses at Boroimhe estate in Fostertown and set alight in the early hours of Tuesday.

A garda statement said that gardaí and emergency services responded to reports of a number of incidents of criminal damage by fire in the estate.

“Mindless idiots set fire to rubbish wheelie bins and placed them immediately in front of the doors of seven properties, which are rented and occupied by Ryanair’s Irish and EU employees,” the company said.

Wheelie bins were rolled up to the front doors of the houses and were set alight.

None of the staff who use the homes were harmed, according to the company, but it said that some are “understandably unnerved by this senseless arson attack on the homes of hard-working young people”.

Ryanair bought more than 20 homes in 2024 in response to the housing crisis making it difficult to house staff.

A video of the incident seen by The Journal shows a number of blazes outside the front door of homes in the estate. The local fire service extinguished the fires.

The properties targeted did not suffer serious damage, Ryanair added.

In a statement, the airline told The Journal that the damage was limited to burns on the front doors of the properties due to the speedy response of emergency services.

Gardaí are investigating the incident.

Ryanair said the suspected arson was “stupidity” and “hard to comprehend when these properties are rented to hard-working Irish and EU young people who work for Ryanair Inflight, Engineering, and in our Swords Head Office and who pay their taxes here in the Irish State”.

The company added:

“Ryanair is one of the largest employers in the Swords area, and it’s difficult to understand what these morons thought they would achieve by this arson attack on rental properties and our hard-working employees.”