THE country's best known businessman, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary, has launched a scathing attack on the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, branding him as "spineless" and "incompetent" and accusing him of allowing the trade unions to run the country.

O'Leary claimed there was a waste of taxpayers' money everywhere, and that tough times demanded leadership, but all that was on offer was the "politics of fudge and dithering".

The criticism of the Taoiseach could not come at a worse time for Ahern, whose consensus style of leadership is increasingly being questioned amid his plummeting popularity ratings.

The Ryanair chief executive is angry over the lack of movement on the proposed second terminal at Dublin airport, which is bitterly opposed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. The airline has promised to launch around 30 new routes into mainland Europe if an independent terminal is built.

In the Dáil last week, the Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan, signalled his commitment to a second terminal, but did not specify when it would happen.

O'Leary lays the blame firmly at the door of the Taoiseach's office for the delay.

"Seamus Brennan is in the clear on this one. He is fighting the unions and an ineffectual prime minister. I have no doubt that Brennan was told [by the Taoiseach] to keep the unions on board. But we didn't elect the unions to run the country." Describing Ahern as "spineless", O'Leary continued: "You expect him to stand up for something. What does he make a stand on? Smoking in pubs. Why? Because the unions support it. The line in the sand is smoking in pubs.

It's unreal." It is a year since interest was expressed by about a dozen consortiums for building an independent terminal at Dublin Airport.

"We are now two years from having proper competition [in the airports], if even.

Bertie won't take on the unions. He is foostering away as usual and adopting a 'let's fudge and delay and hope it goes away [approach]', " the Ryanair boss said.

"I see no prospect of a second terminal under the present administration unless Bertie gets off his backside.

We are dealing with an incompetent prime minister who doesn't want to make decisions, " he added.

This is not the first time O'Leary has castigated a senior politician. Two years ago, he ran a series of ads lambasting the then public enterprise minister Mary O'Rourke.

In contrast, two members of the current cabinet, the Tánaiste, Mary Harney, and the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, recently attended his wedding ceremony.