'Center Parcs should have chosen Westmeath' O'Leary jokes

 

Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary might want to duck the next time he drives through Longford, after telling reporters this week that Center Parcs should have chosen to set up in his native Westmeath and not Longford.

“Westmeath is just a beautiful county; it’s a more attractive county than Longford; it has brighter, more pretty, handsome people than Longford,” he said.

It was all tongue-in-cheek however, and the statement was made as a jokey response to a query from a journalist from Longford during a good-humoured press session.

“It has better infrastructure than Longford, we’re just overall a nicer, better county than Longford,” he said, continuing: “Now, there’s nothing wrong with Longford, it’s just by comparison to Westmeath, they don’t shine just quite as brightly as we would do.”

There was, however, no joking when asked about his views on the airport proposed for Tubber.  Describing it as “a crazy idea”, he was unequivocal in his response to the question of whether Ryanair would fly into it declaring firmly "No".