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.