'Too many teachers in the Dáil': Michael O'Leary stands over comments despite 'pile on'

Michael O'Leary has doubled down on his comments regarding teachers serving as TDs, saying they should "spend more time in the schools and less time in the Dáil."

The Ryanair boss also singled out Green Party ministers Roderic O'Gorman and Catherine Martin for criticism while defending himself on Newstalk this Monday morning.

It follows widespread condemnation over comments Mr O'Leary made at the launch of Fine Gael TD Peter Burke’s election campaign over the weekend, where he called for more people from the private sector in the Dáil over teachers, and that he “wouldn’t generally employ a lot of teachers to go out and get things done.”

"The Dáil is full of teachers, nothing wrong with teachers, I love teachers, I have four children. I think it’s important that we have people who come from the private sector," he said on Saturday night.

Speaking this Monday morning, November 11, on Newstalk Breakfast, he defended his comments, saying that "teachers do a great job in the classroom, but I’m not sure that teachers in the Dáil are necessarily the best people to deliver the kind of change and enterprise we need."

Mr O'Leary also took aim at the Green Party, with whom he has clashed with publicly many times, calling them "weeds on our economy over the last five years".

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He singled out Green Party ministers Roderic O'Gorman and Catherine Martin for criticism, saying that Ms Martin, Minster for Tourism and Sport, "would be far better off back in the classroom, doing the valuable work that teachers do, and as far away from the by reins of government or making decisions where I think she’s clearly failed.”

"I think nobody should vote for the Greens. They need to be weeded out," he said, while also calling the response to his comments at the weekend "a pile on" by the teachers union, Sinn Fein and "left wing tree huggers".

Former Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan, who was on Newstalk immediately after Mr O'Leary, said the Ryanair boss was "someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing".

He criticised his comments about the Green Party, and called Mr O'Leary out for spending "the last five years attacking me personally in the most derogatory, offensive manner."