Horseracing body failed to outline large exit payment to former chief executive

Former IHRB chief executive Denis Egan. Picture: INPHO/Caroline Norris

Ireland’s horseracing regulator failed to outline a massive exit payment made to its former chief executive despite a specific instruction to do so, for fear of breaching his GDPR rights.

Former chief executive of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) Denis Egan was paid a termination payment of €384,870 in September 2021, around €141,000 more than he was entitled to under a voluntary redundancy scheme.

At the Public Accounts Committee, new IHRB chief executive Darragh O’Loughlin admitted that the board had ignored a direct instruction from Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue in May of 2022 to include the former chief executive’s remuneration for 2021 in its financial statements for that year.

Mr McConalogue’s predecessor Michael Creed had previously granted a derogation to the IHRB from having to publish its chief officer’s salary for its financial statements dating from 2018 to 2020.

'Not compliant'

Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy told the PAC that in failing to comply with Mr McConalogue’s request the IHRB was “therefore not compliant” with the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies.

Mr O’Loughlin said that the Minister’s request had “placed us in a difficult position legally” as the contract of employment for Mr Egan had not provided for the publication of his remuneration.

He said that under the GDPR and payment of wages legislation “people have rights of privacy”. 

He added that the decision not to publish Mr Egan’s exit payment had predated his own tenure, which began in June of 2022, and that the 2022 and subsequent financial statements would indeed detail the pay of the board’s chief officer.

However, Mr McCarthy disputed the notion that Mr Egan’s contract had precluded the divulsion of his salary, saying that when the office of the C&AG had requested a copy of the contract none was forthcoming and that the only contract on file dated from 1997. He said it was his understanding that the contract in question “did not exist”.

“For an organisation not to have a contract of employment with any employee is a very significant matter,” Mr McCarthy said.

“Either it doesn’t exist or it isn’t in our possession,” Mr O’Loughlin said.

In May of 2021, Mr Egan had emailed IHRB staff informing them of the voluntary redundancy scheme which was being launched, the rules of which stressed that the maximum payment would not exceed the equivalent of two years’ salary with “no exception” to be allowed.

Mr McCarthy told the PAC that the payment to Mr Egan had exceeded by 58% the sum to which he was entitled, and as such, represented “a significant exception”.

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Mr O’Loughlin acknowledged that fact represented a failure of governance at the IHRB but said that he believed any decisions regarding the publication of salaries were taken in good faith.

Earlier, the committee was delivered a fresh revelation by Mr O’Loughlin when he diverted from his scripted opening statement to say that within the past 48 hours, he had learned of a “hitherto unknown issue” dating from early 2022 which was of “grave concern”.

He said that on foot of that matter, the IHRB’s chief financial officer had embarked on “voluntary leave without prejudice to his position” while an independent review of the issue, which concerns “governance around financial transactions”, is carried out.