Hobbs and wife earn €1.2m in two years from firm

New figures show consumer advocate and Renua Ireland president Eddie Hobbs and his wife, Mary have paid themselves over €1.2m over the past two years from their financial services firm.

The joint pay to the two last year of €559,068 may go some way towards explaining why Mr Hobbs has to date declined to make a commitment about running as a candidate for new political party, Renua in the upcoming general election.

A TD’s salary is currently €87,258 and Mr Hobbs’s salary is a multiple of that. The joint salary of the couple of €559,068 last year is more than three times the salary of Taoiseach Enda Kenny at €185,350.

The pay to the husband and wife team and parents of four in 2014 represents a 14% decline on the €652,144 the two received from Financial Development and Marketing Ltd in 2013.

Mr Hobbs’s wife, Mary Fehily Hobbs last year served as president of Network Ireland, a voluntary organisation for women in business.

Financial Development and Marketing employs six and the total pay — inclusive of directors’ salaries — last year totalled €737,932. This was down on the €800,972 paid out in 2013.

Earlier this year, Mr Hobbs reduced his non-core business roles when he resigned his non-executive directorships at property firm, Brendan Investments and wind turbine energy firm, Airsynergy as a result of his involvement with Renua.

In an email to clients of Financial Development and Marketing Mr Hobbs wrote: “I’m fully committed professionally to Financial Development and Marketing Ltd”.

He said yesterday it would be “impossible” to combine an active role with the company and the work of a TD “as the job of a TD is a full-time one and the commitment required intensive”.

Asked what factors he will take into consideration when deciding whether to contest the election for Renua, Mr Hobbs said: “All of the factors are non-political and mostly private but in the meantime I’m doing what I can as a volunteer in the capacity of president of Renua Ireland and overseeing its enterprise policy development, which means active engagement with the SME sector in particular.

“I grew weary of shouting at the referee and the opposing support after a decade of writing columns,” he says.

Asked was there any particular reason why he decided to take a smaller salary last year, Mr Hobbs said: “Nothing in particular. Most SME owners in these type of firms vary their remuneration to business performance during the year so there will always be differences.

Mr Hobbs established Financial Development and Marketing in the early 1990s and he confirmed that the business last year had single-digit percentage growth.