IFA in legal bid to claw back €4.7m severance package to Pat Smith

IFA president Eddie Downey resigned last night after his organisation decided to take legal action to claw back a €4.7m severance package to former secretary general Pat Smith he only agreed last week.

Con Lucey

The revelations over the scale of the payout, and how Mr Downey was the only person to sign off on it last Thursday, emerged as the now ex president’s future was decided at the IFA’s emergency meeting last night.

While Mr Downey notably stayed away from the high-profile event, 53 IFA delegates discussed the damage caused by the recent pay and pensions scandal in the organisation at the Irish Farm Centre in Bluebell, Dublin.

Eddie Downey

The meeting first dealt with the issue of the rebooted audit of its corporate governance structures, with those gathered agreeing that Con Lucey — the former chief economist at the IFA — would have the report finalised by December 15.

Mr Lucey had been conducting the audit last year until he resigned in August 2014, referring to “unacceptable interference” from now-departed IFA general secretary Pat Smith in letters written to now ex president Eddie Downey.

Con Lucey

The audit is likely to be a blueprint for how the organisation manages the pay and conditions of senior members as well as issues of transparency and accountability. The 53-member council said the move was an “important step forward in rebuilding the trust of farmers”.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney last night told the Irish Examiner he fully understands the anger among farmers over the IFA salary controversy and that the organisation needs to act decisively and with complete transparency to rebuild trust.

“Farmers are understandably very angry and will rightly demand a totally new approach to remuneration and expenditure across all levels of the IFA.

Simon Coveney

“I welcome the agreement to ask Con Lucey to complete a report and recommendations on all remuneration issues in the IFA by December 15 and to encourage members input into that process.

“They have big issues to resolve. This is a trust and confidence issue here among the membership toward the leadership”, he said, but added that despite his ministerial position it is not for him to get involved in what is essentially an internal IFA matter.

“What they are used to is lobbying ministers, but what they are not used to is the kind of scrutiny and spotlight that is on them at the minute from their own members and the media. But they need to get on and deal with it,” he said.