TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen said financier Dermot Desmond has "a very fine business track record" but declined to comment on a recommendation that the businessman be appointed the next chairman of Aer Lingus, write Deaglán De Bréadúnand Simon Carswell.
Asked to comment on the report in The Irish Times that Mr Desmond was in line to become chairman of the airline, Mr Cowen told reporters yesterday at the end of his visit to New York: "That's a matter for the board of Aer Lingus themselves to decide, but obviously Mr Desmond has had a very fine business track record."
A subcommittee set up by the airline's board to find a successor to current chairman John Sharman is to recommend that Mr Desmond be appointed chairman when Mr Sharman's contract expires next March.
Mr Sharman has indicated that he will step down next year when his five-year contract ends.
Other individuals have also been considered for the job but the subcommittee is expected to recommend to the board that Mr Desmond is their preferred candidate.
It is not clear whether Mr Desmond has yet agreed to take the position, if offered it.
Mr Desmond was chairman of Aer Rianta (now Dublin Airport Authority) in the early 1990s.
It is understood that contact has been made between the airline and the Government about the plan to propose Mr Desmond as chairman.
The airline's chief executive, Dermot Mannion, is thought to have met Mr Desmond recently.
A spokeswoman for the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, said he had not been consulted on the airline's choice for its next chairman. She declined to comment further, saying the department would respond when the new chairman was appointed.
The Government owns a 25 per cent stake in the former State airline.
One board member, who asked not to be named, said he was contacted on Thursday by businessman Seán Fitzpatrick, the subcommittee's chairman and a board member of the airline, to tell him that Mr Desmond was being considered to succeed Mr Sharman.
Mr Fitzpatrick, who is also chairman of Anglo Irish Bank and packaging group Smurfit Kappa, is believed to have contacted several board members ahead of the publication in The Irish Times that the financier was being proposed by the subcommittee as its preferred candidate.
Spokeswomen for the airline and Mr Desmond have declined to comment.
