Michael O'Leary is not the typical Anglo-Irish businessman. The head of Ryanair, the Irish low-cost airline, says he is pinning his hopes on continental Europe in the coming years rather than the UK and Ireland. And, unlike Carlos Ghosn of Renault, it is a visceral dislike of the governments there that spurs his judgment.
With the outspoken Mr O'Leary it is sometimes hard to know whether he means something or says it because it furthers his fights with everybody from the UK government to Brussels. But he believes the UK and Ireland will broadly continue in a recession for the next year while continental Europe will enjoy a slow recovery. "There has been massive government mismanagement [in the UK and Ireland]. The public finances are in a mess."
