IFA salaries: Who are the key players?

Pat Smith, IFA general secretary, who stepped down last week.

Revelations over his pay for 2013 and 2014 effectively resulted in his departure from a job he took on in 2009 and in which he was widely seen as having acquitted himself well. His starting salary six years ago is understood to have been €250,000 a year. Mr Smith has earned a reputation as being a tough and forthright negotiator and had been with the IFA for 25 years.

Eddie Downey, IFA president.

Having now stepped aside for the duration of an internal review into the IFA’s corporate governance procedures, Mr Downey will be waiting to see what the longer term outcome is. From Slane, Co Meath, where he is involved in tillage, beef, and poultry, he took on the top job in the organisation only two years ago at the age off 52. He had previously served as chair of IFA’s farm business committee.

Tim O’Leary, IFA deputy president.

Mr O’Leary has now found himself manning the top post in the IFA after Mr Downey’s decision to stand aside while the review takes place. He appeared to give a strong account of himself in defending the IFA on yesterday’s Morning Ireland, apologising for the mistakes made and outlining his own €35,000 salary for what he termed “a job and a half”. A father of four, his dairy farm is in Carrigrohane near Cork City.

Jer Bergin, IFA treasurer.

Installed following the most recent IFA elections, in which he was beaten to the top job by Mr Downey. A Laois man from Ballacolla, he was South Leinster IFA vice president.

Mr O’Leary acknowledged yesterday that Mr Bergin would, alongside Mr Downey, have known the extent of Mr Smith’s salary.

John Bryan, former IFA president.

A former garda, the Kilkenny man from Inistioge runs an intensive suckler beef farm. A father of two, he was elected in 2010 and served a four-year term as IFA chairman. There is no suggestion that he will be asked to provide any information on Mr Smith’s salary scale during his tenure, but many members will be wondering why not. He was previously IFA national livestock chairman.

Con Lucey, now carrying out the internal review on IFA corporate governance.

Another man with a longstanding involvement in the IFA, he was the organisation’s leading economist and stepped down in 2008 after 34 years service. From West Clare and a graduate of University College Dublin, he was hugely admired for his work during his stint and was recalled to the IFA more recently to be chair of its audit committee. When he stepped down just over a year ago, citing interference from other quarters, it indirectly led to the events which culminated in Mr Smith’s resignation in recent days.

Derek Deane, chair of Carlow IFA.

Mr Deane has been leading the charge from within for more information on the extent of Mr Smith’s salary, and brought the matter to the attention of the IFA national council earlier this month, when he said he had heard the general secretary may have been on a salary of around €400,000. That turned out to be an underestimate, and since the controversy has entered the public domain, Mr Deane, from Tombeagh near Hacketstown, has pressed for more information to be made public. A former IFA vice president, he lost out to Mr Bryan for the top job back in 2009.