Review concludes that pay of IFA's Pat Smith, who earned €3.4m in 7 years, was in line with public sector levels

The Former General Secretary of the IFA , Pat Smith, earned €3.4m in the past seven years in pay and pension contributions.

A report into pay and governance at the Irish Farmers Association is recommending that an external expert look at top salaries and that the President should not be involved in setting pay.

However, Con Lucey’s review says the pay of IFA executives is broadly in line with levels in the public sector.

As part of this review of the IFA, the details of Pat Smith’s salary for the past seven years are published for the first time.

Mr Smith started on a package of €469,430 in 2009 – rising to €542,634 in 2013, before falling back slightly in the past two years.

This level of remuneration is what so shocked ordinary farmers, who were making an average of €25,000 last year.

It has also emerged that each President was given a lump sum of one year’s salary on leaving office, last year Eddie Downey’s earned €156,000 from the IFA.

IFA economist Con Lucey is recommending that an external expert look at the IFA’s structure and transparency.

Mr Lucey also says that the President should no longer be involved in setting pay.

Furthermore he says that the role of General Secretary should effectively be split into a CEO and the new role of Secretary, who crucially must be independent from the CEO.