Four of the five former Aer Rianta directors presented with €9,000 Cartier watches as parting gifts from the semi-state company in recognition of their contribution have decided to hand them back, it emerged last night.
However, one former director, Mr Dermot O'Leary, who served as CIÉ chairman until Fine Gael's Mr Michael Lowry sacked him in the mid-1990s, has so far not offered to give back his watch.
Late on Wednesday night, the outgoing Aer Rianta chairman, Mr Noel Hanlon, said he was going to hand back his watch and pay Aer Rianta's successor company, the Dublin Airport Authority, for the other four in an attempt to end the controversy over the gifts. The presentations were approved by the Aer Rianta board before it ceased to exist last Thursday.
Mr Hanlon's announcement led to one of the former directors, Mr Liam Meade, who on Tuesday had vigorously defended his acceptance of a watch, returning it yesterday morning to the Aer Rianta duty manager in Shannon Airport. "I have returned the watch because I believed it to be totally inappropriate to accept Mr Hanlon's generosity in offering to buy it and to put him in that position," Mr Meade told The Irish Times.
Another former director, Mr Tadhg O'Donoghue, who also serves as the chairman of the ESB, has already returned his watch. And Cork-based businesswoman Ms Freda Hayes is in the process of doing so, reliable sources said last night.
Noting that Mr Hanlon is to hand back his watch, Fine Gael Senator Brian Hayes, speaking in the Seanad yesterday, raised questions about Aer Rianta's decision to let him continue to use a company Mercedes car.
The decision of all bar one of the former directors to hand back the watches raises questions about the amount that will have to be paid by Mr Hanlon.
Though Cartier may simply accept their return quietly, which would not leave Mr Hanlon out of pocket, it is possible that the luxury watchmaker might be reluctant to do so if any of the watches were taken out of their presentation boxes.
Earlier this week, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen, both described the presentation of the gifts to the board members as "not appropriate".
Mr O'Leary is a former member of Fianna Fáil's national executive and he remains an influential figure in some party circles in Dublin.
