RYANAIR BOSS MICHAEL O’Leary has been criticised for making “completely inappropriate and deeply offensive” comments after he called his rival airlines “high-fare rapists”.
O’Leary made the remarks ahead of his airline’s annual general meeting in Dublin this morning, where he claimed that rising air travel prices at other airlines would see passengers switch to Ryanair.
He told reporters at the company’s headquarters: “You might find some people will choose not to fly with Ryanair – but you know they’ll be overrun with the people abandoning Aer Lingus, Lufthansa, BA and others desperate to get to Ryanair’s low fares because they can’t afford to fly with the high-fare rapists around Europe.”
He later repeated the “high-fare rapists” comments.
Asked whether this was appropriate language, O’Leary told reporters: “Absolutely.”
Challenged on whether it was offensive to victims of rape and sexual assault, he said he would “happily offend” the airlines mentioned.
Further pressed on whether the language was trivialising rape, he said: “That’s what I call high-fare airlines like Lufthansa, BA and others.”
In a statement, executive director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland Corrinne Hasson told The Journal that the comments are “completely inappropriate and deeply offensive to survivors of sexual violence”.
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“Comparing rape to selling airline tickets undermines the experiences and trauma of survivors,” she said.
“Flippant comments like this show a lack of understanding about rape culture and form part of the bedrock which allows violence against women to thrive in our society.”
Rachel Morrogh, chief executive of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, called the comments “lazy and uninformed”.
“It feels like Mr O’Leary is chasing soundbites with no regard for how they may affect people,” she said.
Undoubtedly, the words of high-profile individuals can contribute to trivialising and tolerating sexual violence in our society. And for many survivors of rape, his words will be deeply hurtful and angering to hear.
Morrogh added: “I will write to Mr O’Leary to offer him training on how the trivialisation of rape is so harmful.
“He has verbalised a historical trope and as a leading figure in industry, he should lead from the front in terms of what he says and does.”
Dr Caroline Forde of the Domestic Violence Advocacy Service accused O’Leary of being “callous” and using “sensational language about a very pervasive and serious issue”.
She told Newstalk’s Claire Byrne Show: “He’s doing that while triggering and re-traumatising victims and survivors.
“It’s extremely offensive.”
People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger blasted the comments as “really disgusting”, which she said had the effect of serving to “trivialize rape and sexual assault”.
Coppinger added that she believes the airline chief executive’s remarks were likely not off-the-cuff, because O’Leary “knows it will get covered in the media” afterwards.
“It’s a provocative comment in order to have a cut at his competitors, and to throw around the word rapists like that is just very offensive and hurtful to survivors and victims of sexual assault and rape,” the Dublin West TD said.
With reporting from Jane Moore, Sophie Finn, Eoghan Dalton and Press Association