Director’s board fees top €115,000 each year
Although he is resigning from the Health Service Executive (HSE), his current directors’ tally entitles him to fees of €116,651 a year.
However, the former Dublin city manager said these are not seats he solicited and they were only offered to him after he snubbed more lucrative consultancy and directorship roles with development companies.
Moreover, he said if he was asked to apply for state board positions, under a new system the Government intends to introduce, he would not have come forward to offer his services.
“I have felt a sense of obligation. I was in the private sector for quite a long time... but I came back to the public sector because I always felt you could get things done that you could never get done in the public sector.
“You do things because you are asked to do them. If you get a phone call from somebody at a senior level who says there is a job to do. I know in theory it is easy to say no but in practice it is not easy to say no,” he said.
Mr Fitzgerald is chairman of An Post, chairman of the National Transport Authority, chairman of the Grangegorman Development Agency, chairman of both the Limerick regeneration boards, vice-chairman of InterTrade Ireland and a resigning member of the HSE.
The lowest fee he earns is €8,550 for each of the Limerick boards, which the Government has failed to amalgamate, and the highest is the €29,888 he is entitled to from An Post.
However, Mr Fitzgerald said he was offered a number of private-sector posts which — between consultancy fees, board membership fees and executive services — would dwarf the rewards of all his state appointments combined.
But he felt having been in a “control function” as a city manager it was not proper for the game keeper to become the poacher and he made a decision to keep his distance.
“As far as money is concerned, you do not do these things for the money. They do not amount to a whole lot when you put them beside the offers from the private sector.
“[In 2006] I was offered half a dozen positions in the private sector but I said no,” he said.
He said when the invitation to sit on the board of the HSE reached him last year he felt a draw to contribute to a service he felt strongly about.
“I got asked to go on the board of the HSE only a year ago at the time I had a lot on my plate and people said I was crazy.
“But I worked in the health sector for quite a while and it would have been easier to say no,” he said.
Mr Fitzgerald has not been asked to play a role on minor quangos and instead has a key role in some of the most challenging jobs in the sector.
But, he said, he was Dublin city manager for 10 years and in that role he had an executive responsibility for many different departments including housing, waste, water and loose horses.
So it is not difficult to split his work between the non-executive responsibilities of the different state boards, he said.
“As far as the work load is concerned you cannot just turn up for meetings but the difference is these are non executive roles.
“Can I handle four of them? I can handle them quite easily,” he said.
Regarding the Government’s proposal to advertise all board positions and wait for applicants to present themselves Mr Fitzgerald said he would not have been interested and will not be in the future.
“I was approached by people who felt I had something to offer. I never approached anybody.
“I would not apply. I made a decision when I left the city council that I was finished with applying for things... I have enough on my plate between pro bono work as I can handle right now,” he said.
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