O’Leary blasts Nphet and RTÉ for ‘daily doses of pessimism’

Group CEO of Ryanair, Mullingar's Michael O’Leary, blasted Nphet and the Irish government, telling them to “get the finger out” and vaccinate Ireland’s high risk population.

O’Leary said Europe and Ireland “needs to get its act together and catch up” with the UK, which will see 50% of its population vaccinated by the end of March.

“There aren’t lots of young people getting sick and going to hospital, there is an increase in the numbers, but the vast majority of people who are sick and dying from Covid are in the over 65-year age group.”

He accused Nphet of “trying to terrify the population” through its daily press conferences.

“Nphet and the chief medical officer [Dr Tony Holohan}, if he was doing his job properly, should be holding a daily press conference announcing the number of people who have been vaccinated, not issuing scare stories about numbers of people in hospitals.

“He’s the chief medical officer, and he should be dealing with the vaccine because vaccination is the way out of this Covid crisis, not these failed lockdowns,” continued the Ryanair boss.

He said restrictions should end once everybody over 50 is vaccinated, which he said can be done by the end of June, once Ireland “gets its act together.”

“There will be a dramatic reduction in hospitalisations, there will be a dramatic reduction in deaths, and there will be a dramatic reduction in hype by RTÉ once everybody over 50 is vaccinated,” he said.

Asked if it was the wrong time for Ryanair to be painting a picture of people enjoying summer holidays and jumping into swimming pools, via television adverts, Mr O’Leary argued:

“We need some optimism in Ireland instead of the daily doses of pessimism being delivered by Nphet and RTÉ.

“What we need to look forward to is a post-vaccination date, which should be in the second quarter of this year.”

Mr O’Leary was speaking on RTÉs Morning Ireland as it was revealed that his company expects to incur a full-year loss of nearly €1bn because of the pandemic.

He also denied that customers are still waiting on refunds from Ryanair.