Gate Theatre chiefs’ salary drops €20k to €270k

The combined pay for the country’s best-paid arts administrator, artistic director of the Gate Theatre, Michael Colgan, and a fellow director decreased last year by almost €20,000 or 7% to €269,006.

Mr Colgan last year celebrated 30 years as artistic director and the driving force of one of Ireland’s best-known theatres.

Earlier this year, the theatre’s finances came under the spotlight after it was revealed that Mr Colgan had a salary, including pension, of €230,000 in 2012.

Mr Colgan was paid a basic salary of €120,000 — frozen since 2007 along with a touring bonus of €50,000 and pension payment of €59,000.

Mr Colgan’s touring bonus is completely dependent on the success of the theatre’s overseas programme and last year, Mr Colgan led the theatre’s production of Samuel Beckett play Krapp’s Last Tape, starring John Hurt in Los Angeles.

The accounts show that the combined payments to Mr Colgan and an acting colleague on the board in 2012 totalled €288,501.

New accounts just filed by the Edwards-Mac Liammóir Dublin Gate Theatre Productions Ltd for 2013 show that the combined directors’ pay last year totalled €269,006 — a drop of €19,945.

The remuneration is broken down between directors’ salary, expenses and employer’s PRSI of €209,073 along with €59,933 in pension payments

The abridged accounts confirm that the Gate last year recorded a surplus as the theatre was packed with theatre-goers to see the likes of the critically-acclaimed production of the The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

However, the company’s balance sheet shows that the company’s accumulated income dropped by more than €541,000 last year from €1m to €532,522.

The theatre’s operational monies declined from €739,728 to €232,526.

The accounts show that the theatre last year incurred non-cash depreciation costs of €186,466.

The accounts do not provide a revenue figure. A note attached to the accounts states that the company is dependent on Arts Council funding.

It states: “The directors have had discussions with the Arts Council and are of the opinion that funding will continue for the foreseeable future.”

The company has charitable status and does not pay tax.