IMO boss admits laxity on €25m deal

The president of the Irish Medical Organisation has admitted he should have done more to find out about the contract terms of the union’s former chief executive which left him with a pension entitlement of up to €25m.

Addressing the union’s AGM yesterday in Killarney, Co Kerry, Dr Paul McKeown said the deal, signed off by former IMO president Prof Joe Barry, would have bankrupted the group.

He said anybody he had spoken to in the IMO did not know the amount of money involved and Prof Barry signed the contract without being aware of the ramifications. Prof Barry was an member of the IMO remuneration committee when the deal was signed in 2003.