Hanlon to foot €36,000 bill for watches given to Aer Rianta chiefs
Last night, Mr Hanlon said he would give back his own €9,000 Cartier watch and would personally pay for the four other watches given at the taxpayers’ expense to outgoing Aer Rianta directors.
Hanlon hopes his decision will put a stop to the watch controversy which caused alarm in political circles yesterday.
The luxury gifts were “wholly appropriate in recognition of the time-consuming work undertaken in recent years by the former directors”, he said.
But in light of the controversy which sprung from the time-pieces, Hanlon said: “I have decided to return my watch and to personally pay for the other four.”
Yesterday, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he did not think it was “appropriate” for members of State boards to receive watches worth €9,000.
Asked by the Green’s finance spokesman Dan Boyle if he thought the rules for the acceptance of gifts applied to Oireachtas members should be extended to pubic bodies, Mr Ahern said: “If I receive a gift worth over €600 I must give it up, and no one in this house can receive such a gift. No, I do not think it was appropriate.”
The PDs’ transport spokesman Senator Tom Morrissey said the gifts represented an abuse and waste of public money and he called on Transport Minister Martin Cullen and the Director of Corporate Enforcement Paul Appleby for an investigation. But Mr Cullen’s spokesman said he had no role to play in the decision-making of the Aer Rianta board.
Mr Appleby could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, the Dublin Airport Authority, which took over the role of the Aer Rianta board in Dublin at the weekend, distanced itself from the gifts, saying: “Any presentations made by the outgoing board of Aer Rianta are entirely an issue for that board.”
The majority of the final Aer Rianta board members did not receive watches.
Recipients included former CIÉ chairman Dermot O’Leary and ESB chairman Tadhg O’Donoghue.
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