Ireland’s Harris Rejects CEO’s Comments at Party Event

(Bloomberg) -- Ryanair Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary made controversial comments about teachers serving in government, forcing Prime Minister Simon Harris to go on the defensive weeks before an election.

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“I wouldn’t generally employ a lot of teachers to go out and get things done,” O’Leary told a Saturday campaign event to endorse trade minister and member of Fine Gael Peter Burke.

Ireland is to hold an election at the end of the month, after Harris called a snap vote to capitalize on strong polling numbers at the expense of left-wing opposition party Sinn Fein, which has slumped recently, largely on the issue of immigration as its working-class base looked elsewhere for solutions.

O’Leary doubled down on the remarks Monday, claiming that teachers aren’t the best people to deliver the kind of change he said Ireland needed in a radio interview on Newstalk radio. “I think the more teachers we have in the classroom the better and the fewer teachers we have in the Dail or in ministerial office, the better,” he said.

“The comments were crass and ill-informed. I’m pretty annoyed,” Harris told reporters Monday as he attempted to distance himself and his party from the remarks.

“Teachers are the people that we trust with our most important possessions: our children,” he said pointing out that two former political leaders, ex-finance minister Michael Noonan and former prime minister Enda Kenny, were once teachers.

Fixing Ireland’s infrastructure shortfalls, including in the public sector, is one of the biggest issues on voters’ minds. As such, the comments attracted criticism from Micheal Martin, deputy prime minister and leader of government coalition party Fianna Fail, while Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said teachers were “demeaned and jeered at a Fine Gael function.”

While a setback, the remarks are unlikely to trip up the prime minister who looks on course to gain a fresh term in government according to polling data. He has enjoyed a honeymoon period with voters after becoming his party’s leader in March.

Even so, courting the vote of working people in Ireland is important for Fine Gael over the coming weeks, illustrated by the government’s recent €10.5 billion ($11.2 billion) budget giveaway which includes several tax credits and extra welfare payments to be dished out before Christmas.

(Corrects spelling of Ryanair CEO’s first name in 1st paragraph)

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