€53k salary bump for new horse racing chief 'proportionate'
Horse Racing Ireland CEO Suzanne Eade presents Champion Jockey Colin Keane with his HRI Flat award last October. The starting salary bump for the CEO post doesn't represent an increase, says the Government. Picture: Healy Racing
A decision to raise the starting salary for the new chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland by €53,000 does not “represent an increase” on the terms for the position, according to the Government.
In a note for the Public Accounts Committee, the Department of Public Expenditure said that since the previous CEO had been in his position for 20 years, his salary had predated cuts imposed during the recession.
Brian Kavanagh’s tenure, which ended last September, had thus never seen the former CEO paid at the agreed lower starting point for the role of €137,500. He was in the post for three consecutive terms despite guidelines that only a single term be served.
Mr Kavanagh, now chief executive of the Curragh racecourse, was succeeded as CEO by Suzanne Eade, HRI’s former chief financial officer, after HRI warned that recruiting for the role would be “extremely difficult” based on the lower salary rates.
During the recession at the end of the 2000s, a lower salary range of between €137,000 and €164,000 was agreed for the post of HRI chief. HRI will receive over €70m in taxpayer funding across 2022, the Dept said.
"As the incumbent CEO remained in post until 2021, and no CEO recruitment took place in Horse Racing Ireland in the period, the 2011 range has never been in payment for this post,” it said.
Ms Eade’s salary was to reach €190,773 by the end of her seven-year term. This was subsequently revised in line with the remuneration of Mr Kavanagh.
The higher salary was consented to by, respectively, the Ministers for Public Expenditure and Agriculture Michael McGrath and Charlie McConalogue after an independent assessment by NewERA (New Economy and Recovery Authority), the State body set up to aid ministers in formulating pay for State posts, was “supportive” of the higher wage.
The Dept of Agriculture said that Mr McConalogue views the remuneration as being “proportionate, in light of HRI’s contribution to the economy and the responsibilities of the role”.
Ms Eade’s salary is supplemented by a pension package, the Department of Agriculture said.
HRI had also proposed a car allowance of more than €13,000 together with mileage for its new CEO — however Mr McGrath did not consent to that suggestion, with the use of a company car being offered to Ms Eade instead.
