FORMER RYANAIR executive Conor McCarthy is leading one of the four bids being actively considered by SR Technics to acquire its north Dublin operation.
Mr McCarthy, who also previously worked for Aer Lingus, has set up a company called Dublin Aerospace and has bid for certain parts of the SR Technics business here.
Mr McCarthy, who runs a Dublin-based consultancy called Plane Consult and is also involved with Air Asia in Malaysia, confirmed his bid yesterday to The Irish Times but declined to provide any details.
This is one of four bids being vetted by IDA Ireland and SR Technics in a bid to save some jobs at the aircraft maintenance facility in Dublin. A decision is expected within two weeks.
The other interested parties include a bid from a group led by former SR Technics chief Bernard Hensey and Setanta Sports executive Mark O’Meara.
A European-based company that specialises in auxiliary power units, which comprises about 20 per cent of the business of SR Technics here, is also believed to have tabled an offer.
SR Technics declined to comment on the identities of any of the bidders. The company yesterday made 585 staff redundant at its Dublin airport facility as the first step in a phased wind-down of the Irish operation.
SR Technics said all of the workers signed up for the redundancy package on offer. Another 100 staff are expected to be let go later this month, with the plant due to close at the end of August.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment yesterday confirmed it was in contact with SR Technics’ Swiss parent in relation to the offers that have been tabled for the Dublin-based maintenance operation.
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey also expressed his hope yesterday that some of the 1,135 SR Technics jobs could be saved.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme, Mr Dempsey said the Government would leave “no stone unturned” to try to keep the jobs in Ireland if a viable financial proposal emerged.
It is understood that all of the proposals being considered would involve about 600 workers being retained at the hangar facility in Dublin.
None of the offers are based on a transfer of undertakings for employees. All of the interested parties are believed to want to introduce new contracts of employment at the plant.
“SR Technics’ decision not to allow workers to take the unpaid leave means that 600 workers are facing the dole from Monday,” Siptu branch organiser Pat Ward told The Irish Times.
“This is an awful shame. If there had been the political will and goodwill from SR Technics then the situation faced by them would be different.”