IFA salaries: Review set to be complete in December

The rebooted review into the IFA’s internal structures could be complete by December 15, with its findings likely to be presented to a meeting of the farming body’s national council.

The audit of the IFA’s corporate governance structures is being led by its ex-chief economist, Con Lucey, who quit a similar brief just over a year ago citing interference from then-IFA general secretary Pat Smith.

In a separate letter to IFA president Eddie Downey at the time of his resignation, Mr Lucey had written: “I believe that there is a compelling case for the establishment of a remuneration committee in IFA which would have responsibility for setting the levels of financial reward for the top two officeholders at least.”

Revelations that Mr Smith scooped over €1m in salary across 2013 and 2014 has led to his stepping down and, as of Monday night,Mr Downey announcing he would step aside while Mr Lucey’s report is compiled.

Mr Lucey was unavailable for comment yesterday but it is understood his report will not seek that anyone resigns, but will look at increasing transparency within the IFA and issues such as whether any future secretary general should have a fixed-term contract, rather than an open-ended tenure, and whether rates of pay should be incentivised.

While Mr Lucey continues with the review, pressure increased on Mr Downey and senior members of the IFA to step down completely.

IFA vice president Tim O’Leary yesterday put forward a robust defence of the organisation while speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland , stating the IFA would resolve the problems confronting it.

But he also apologised for the “mistakes” that had occurred and while he said he was unaware of Mr Smith’s salary, Mr Downey and IFA treasurer, Jer Bergin, would have known.

Yesterday the IFA Mayo branch said there needed to be a “root and branch” cleanout of the IFA, with new elections. Mayo IFA chairman Padraig Joyce said the county executive met on Monday, with about 100 people in attendance, with consensus that Mr Downey and other senior personnel needed to step down .

“They feel Eddie Downey would have known what was going on over the last two years and should have moved a lot sooner in sorting the situation out,” he told RTÉ’s News At One.

Mr Joyce also said the farmers at the meeting believed Mr Downey’s salary, reported to be €147,000, was “too high”.

However, agriland.ie, which broke the story on the scale of Mr Smith’s salary, suggested Mr Downey was in receipt of about €50,000 in director’s fees from FBD and Bord Bia, which meant his overall salary was just shy of €200,000. The IFA has since sought to clarify this and stated the director’s fees were roughly €40,000, meaning Mr Downey’s salary was just shy of €190,000.

It is understood that talks on a severance package for Mr Smith are continuing, while the IFA said the number of calls from farmers threatening to terminate membership was “in the dozens” — a tiny percentage of its 88,000 membership.

Meanwhile, the Irish Cattle and Sheep Association urged an end of non-statutory levies deducted from farm incomes, from which it said it did not receive “a red cent”. It increases the focus on the application of the €2 European Improvement Fund levy from the sale of livestock which goes to the IFA.

The controversy has also increased the focus on what general secretaries in other bodies are earning. The general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, Liam Doran, said he would make no comment about staff salaries.