RYANAIR HAS called for the requisition of an egm by Aer Lingus to allow shareholders to vote for the publication of a report on who was responsible for the airline making a special €30 million payment to the Revenue Commissioners.
The report, by Deloitte/McCann Fitzgerald, has reviewed the leave and rehire redundancy scheme run by Aer Lingus in 2008, which led to the airline having to make the payment to Revenue in 2011.
The payment arose from tax liabilities that accrued for employees who had received redundancy payments under the scheme.
Ryanair wants the report to be published and those responsible for the “squandering of €30 million” held to account. It described the decision not to publish the report as a cover-up.
Ryanair is a 20 per cent shareholder in Aer Lingus. Holders of more than 10 per cent of a company’s shareholding have a right under company law to requisition an egm. A spokesman for Aer Lingus said it had not as yet received any documents from Ryanair and would consider them when it did.
The requisition notice issued by Ryanair calls for two motions to be put to an egm to be held within three weeks. One would call for the publication of the Deloitte/ McCann Fitzgerald report, while the second would call on Aer Lingus to state unequivocally that it would not make any further contributions to its employee pension schemes.
Ryanair said it has not tabled any motion calling on Aer Lingus to pay a dividend from its more than €900 million cash reserves but nevertheless continues to call on the company to do so.
Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary said recent analysis suggested the passing of the two suggested motions might result in the Aer Lingus share price rising from €0.70 to more than €1. The Government is considering the sale of its 25.1 per cent stake in Aer Lingus.