Ryanair has condemned as “senseless” an arson attack in Swords on several of the houses it owns and rents to members of its staff.
Seven houses in the Fosterstown area of the north Dublin suburb were targeted during an incident early on Tuesday morning in which wheelie bins were set alight then pushed up against the front doors of the houses.
Staff, some of whom were sleeping at the time, escaped out back doors and the company said nobody had been hurt.
A video on social media clearly shows the fires blazing immediately outside the front doors and the damage being caused to the houses.
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It is not known whether the attacks were simply random acts of vandalism, racially motivated or intended to target the company itself, but Ryanair described those behind them as “mindless idiots”.
The damage to the homes was serious, with front doors destroyed in several cases. Some of the staff who spoke to the media on Tuesday said they had feared for their lives.
The company, which has bought a number of houses in areas close to the airport to house staff, said it was “hard to comprehend when these properties are rented to hard-working Irish and EU young people who work for Ryanair in-flight, engineering, and in our Swords head office and who pay their taxes here in the Irish state”.
“Ryanair is one of the largest employers in the Swords area, and it’s difficult to understand what these morons thought they would achieve” by this “criminal attack”.
The company said that “thanks to the prompt efforts of the Dublin Fire Brigade and the Garda Síochána in Swords, the damage was limited to burns on the front doors of these properties in the Swords area”.
“None of the properties suffered serious damage, and thankfully none of Ryanair’s employees were harmed in any way although some are understandably unnerved by this senseless arson attack on the homes of hardworking young people.”
Ryanair employs 26,000 people across its operations but has a high rate of turnover – 25 per cent last year – and so it constantly recruiting.
Its decision to buy some housing in Dublin over the past few years has been part of an effort to retain staff given the ongoing and acute accommodation shortage in Dublin.
In a statement, An Garda Síochána said investigations into the incident are “ongoing”.
“Gardaí and emergency services responded to report of a number of incidents of criminal damage by fire at a number of residential properties in Swords, Co Dublin, in the early hours of Tuesday 23rd.
“The local fire service extinguished the fires. No injuries were reported at the time.”
