Kenny Jacobs, the suspended chief executive of the DAA, which runs Dublin Airport and Cork Airport, has described allegations against him of \u201csexist, misogynistic, racist, homophobic and ageist behaviour\u201d in comments to or about employees as baseless.<\/p>\n
Mr Jacobs, in written evidence before the High Court, also described allegations that he had been responsible for suicidal ideation by employees as false and unjustifiably made.<\/p>\n
He has further denied allegations of having interfered with procurement processes by the State-owned company.<\/p>\n
Claiming that he had been sick at a service station only minutes after having been told by the DAA chairman to leave his office last month, he has told the court that the stress being caused to him, his wife and his family by his suspension and matters leading up to it has been \u201cimmense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have suffered physical and mental harm by the behaviour of certain board members and by my suspension,\u201d he stated in an affidavit used to obtain short service of legal proceedings against DAA.<\/p>\n
He is seeking to overturn his suspension last month and resume his job. <\/p>\n
\u201cDespite purporting to offer me the opportunity of making representations on the decision to suspend me, I was instructed by Mr Geoghegan to leave DAA\u2019s premises, not return to the office, not communicate with any DAA staff or access my email or other DAA systems,\u201d he claimed. <\/p>\n
He said that he was \u201cshell shocked coming out of the meeting\u201d and that he felt \u201cambushed and humiliated\u201d by the chairman. <\/p>\n
The row between the board and chief executive followed two protected disclosures against Mr Jacobs early last year which were not upheld after a senior barrister\u2019s investigation. <\/p>\n
New allegations subsequently emerged, leading to a loss of board confidence in the chief executive and the decision to initiate a new investigation.<\/p>\n
Mr Jacobs told his legal team, led by Padraic Lyons SC and barrister, Colm Kitson and Arthur Cox Solicitors, that the stress would only continue and worsen under the continuation of a disciplinary investigation that he is also seeking to block in the absence of the appointment of an impartial and independent decision maker.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy health has deteriorated as a consequence of the treatment I have suffered,\u201d he stated. \u201cI have seen my own GP, DAA\u2019s occupational health experts and other clinical specialists and I have been prescribed medication including medication normally used for the treatment of anxiety and insomnia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Jacobs claimed the decision to commence the investigation and publicly suspend him was very damaging to his good name, reputation and professional standing.<\/p>\n
Mr Jacobs added that, nevertheless, he remained committed to his role as chief executive of DAA and would return to work tomorrow, if permitted. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy return to work is a matter of immediate urgency as is the intervention of the court to restrain a process that has gone radically wrong,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Jacobs told the court he had already been cleared of two allegations by an inquiry headed by senior counsel, Mark Connaughton, and that a further 20 allegations were being lined up against him in order to secure a particularly unfavourable decision against him in the proposed investigation.<\/p>\n
He took issue with what he claimed were damaging leaks on the conflict to the media, including The Irish Times. Specifically, he claimed 41 questions sent by Arthur Beesley, a journalist with this newspaper, to the DAA press office in September led him to believe the reporter was \u201cimproperly provided\u201d with a DAA paper related to a failed mediation process between both sides \u201cwith the effect of further damaging and undermining my good name\u201d. <\/p>\n
The matter, heard by Ms Justice Farrell on an ex parte (one side only) basis on Thursday will go before the court again on Monday. The court is likely at that point to hear from the company.<\/p>\n
The DAA declined to comment on Friday on the allegations in the affidavit. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenny Jacobs, the suspended chief executive of the DAA, which runs Dublin Airport and Cork Airport, has described…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,10725,11900,61,60,12844],"class_list":{"0":"post-236622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-daa","10":"tag-dublin-airport","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-kenny-jacobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}