Ex-music academy director’s €225k package revealed

THE former director of the Royal Irish Academy of Music racked up a €23,000 expenses bill in 2008 on top of an annual remuneration package that worked out at more than €225,000.

According to an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), renowned pianist John O’Conor — a director of the academy from 1994 until his retirement in September — was on a salary of €49,872 for a part-time contract equivalent to about 80% of the hours of other admin staff in 2008.

In the same year he was also allowed annual leave of 10 weeks with a payment of €88,200 towards his private pension. According to the audit, Mr O’Conor also maintained his part-time teaching position and was paid €65,254 a year for half the contracted hours of full-time academic staff.

A separate arrangement under which Mr O’Conor delivered a two-day seminar for piano teachers once a year earned him €10,100 and more than €11,500 raised from sales of a seminar handbook.

The total package — worth €225,000 in 2008 — was only notified to the Department of Education after the C&AG’s office enquired if its approval had been secured. In September last year, the department refused to sanction the arrangements, which it found “inappropriate in the context of current public service norms and for the operation of a modern organisation”.

The department told the academy its funding would be reconsidered if all issues raised were not addressed.

The C&AG report, published yesterday, points out that Mr O’Conor was reimbursed all but €37 of his €23,000 expenses allowance for hospitality he provided in 2008, in addition to €5,325 for travel costs and €1,322 for other expenses. Original invoices or receipts were not attached.

In April last year, the academy capped the director’s annual expense budget at €12,500. The C&AG’s report said a revised contract for Mr O’Conor’s successor has addressed concerns.