It is tempting to portray the protracted exit of Kenny Jacobs, the chief executive of DAA, as an example of a hard-charging private sector executive who took on the Blob and lost.
First popularised by the Conservative politician Michael Gove, the Blob is a sort of shorthand for vested interests co-operating to resist change.
In Gove’s case, it was the coalition of unions and politicians that opposed his efforts to reform the UK education system during the 2010 to 2015 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. In Jacobs’ case, the Blob is Fingal County Council and the Department of Transport
The narrative goes as follows: The proximate reason for the breakdown in Jacobs’ relationship with the board of the State-owned airport operator was the handling of two protected disclosure complaints against him, described as matters relating to dignity in the workplace. These were not upheld after being examined by an outside party.
The ultimate reason, however, was the combative approach he adopted in his dealings with Fingal County Council over the cap on passenger numbers at Dublin Airport. His elbows-out approach – which recently saw Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien bounced into announcing that he would do away with the cap – was not to the liking of senior civil servants in the Department of Transport and elsewhere.
Generally speaking, senior civil servants are not keen on State company chief executives – with the backing of their board – who effectively ignore regulations and get embroiled in a legal dispute with another arm of the State that eventually drags in the Minister and forces the Government’s hand.
It may all look like some sort of Machiavellian scheme instigated by Jacobs. The truth is probably a bit more prosaic. But what is hard to dispute is that Jacobs’ nimble footwork seems to have overcome the sort of institutional inertia – aka the Blob – that increasingly blights economic progress in this country.
It’s the sort of coup that would be celebrated in the private sector but is viewed with deep concern by the civil servants who endeavour to keep State companies within their purview on a tight leash. One reason they do this is to ensure ministers are not wrong-footed in the way O’Brien appears to have been.
They must have realised that anyone who prospered under Michael O’Leary – the combative Ryanair chief – was no shrinking violet
Given the strength of local opposition to the noise and the other downsides of the ever-expanding Dublin Airport, ending the cap may cost votes in north Dublin. The temptation to kick the can down the road was considerable but it was no longer an option after Jacobs put the DAA and Fingal on a collision course.
We may never know how much of Jacobs’ denouement was a consequence of his so-called “take-no-s**t” attitude in dealings with Fingal over the cap and other issues. But, as reported in this paper last week, we do know it grated with senior Department of Transport officials.
The extent to which the mandarins on Merrion Street can directly influence the board of a State company is debatable, but they do speak for the Minister who is the shareholder.
If Jacobs’ abrasive style was even partly the reason for the board losing confidence in him, it raises the question as to why they hired him in the first place. Equally puzzling is why Jacobs took the job in late 2022.
The latter question is easier to answer. Jacobs needed a job, having left Ryanair in mid-2020 after he lost out in the competition to be chief executive of Ryanair Designated Activity Company, the largest of four individual airlines that make up the Ryanair Group.
DAA may have thought they were getting a poacher-turned-gamekeeper, but at the same time they must have realised that anyone who prospered under Michael O’Leary – the combative Ryanair chief – was no shrinking violet.
Both sides knew what they were getting into. Jacobs, as a senior Ryanair executive, could not have been unaware of the culture of Irish State-owned companies such as DAA and their relationship with the senior civil servants who oversee them.
The DAA board, for its part, may have been attracted to the idea of a chief executive who would shake things up in this regard. If that was the case, they got what they wanted and more. Too much, if you subscribe to the views that the ousting of Jacobs was the revenge of the Blob.
O’Brien and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers must now both sign off on a €1 million severance deal that has been agreed with Jacobs, who has another four years left on his contract.
It is a lot of money. But some in the permanent government may consider it money well spent if it serves to remind Jacobs’ successor and his peers in the other State companies who is the boss.
