Officials tried to get Horse Racing chief a third term

Department of Agriculture officials pleaded to be allowed break the rules to keep the chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland in line for an unprecedented 21-year stint at the helm of the semi-state company.

Semi-state chief executives are supposed to be restricted to one term of seven years. Brian Kavanagh had completed one stint and was given a concession for a second but Horse Racing Ireland demanded a clause allowing to stay on for a third term.

The lobbying on behalf of Mr Kavanagh happened while the department was in a standoff with HRI over his receipt of backdated bonuses and its failure to have him sign a new contract.

The Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure were told by senior Agriculture House officials that, given the specialist nature of the industry and the particular circumstances, Mr Kavanagh’s case should be considered differently.

This was joined with a parallel appeal to allow Mr Kavanagh’s new contract to effectively begin in 2010 or 2011.

It was eventually decided that the contract should be backdated to 2009, when the interviews for the post were held.

Instructions from Department of Finance officials said that the “quid pro quo” for benefits available to commercial semi-state chief executives was that they were restricted to limited tenures.

Briefing memos, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that finance staff felt a further relaxation of the rules for Mr Kavanagh would undermine government policy.

It said that the fact Mr Kavanagh was well regarded for his work was not a valid reason for keeping him on because it assumed there was nobody who could do a better job.

The petitioning on behalf of Mr Kavanagh occurred after the Department of Agriculture had already secured a second term for him, against the wishes of the Department of Finance.

It happened in 2004 after then sports minister John O’Donoghue convinced the finance minister, Charlie McCreevy, to make an exception.

Mr McCreevy said it was unsatisfactory that Mr Kavanagh had worked for the first two years of his term without signing a contract.

History repeated itself in 2008 when Mr Kavanagh’s initial contract ran its course and HRI lobbied for the prohibition on rehiring him to be deleted.

HRI again petitioned the Department to allow it to delete a clause in the chief executives’ contract which prohibited him from reapplying in seven years.

The semi-state would not comment on the terms of the new contract Mr Kavanagh signed.

The Department of Agriculture said: “Information regarding the specifics of Mr Kavanagh’s contract of employment should be directed to HRI.”