Jonathan Hill confident documents will verify 'cock and bull story'

Discrepancies in the chief executive’s remuneration – specifically a returned €12,000 payment for 12 untaken holidays against company policy and unpaid benefit in kind tax on travel expenses of €8,500 – were uncovered during an audit.

Wed, 13 Dec, 2023 - 22:49

John Fallon

Jonathan Hill is confident that documentary evidence furnished ahead of the FAI’s visit to the Public Accounts Committee in February will verify his claims around an overpayment he’s since repaid.

Those irregularities and the handling of the matter, particularly by outgoing Chairman Roy Barrett, dominated Tuesday’s appearance by a 11-person FAI delegation before a committee for Tourism, Sport and Media.

Hill’s version of events regarding the saga was dismissed by a Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon as a “cock and bull story” and “not credible” at the hearing.

The FAI are back in the firing line on February 1 when the forum responsible for ensuring exchequer funding is properly spent, the PAC, scrutinise the dispersal of the €33.7m in Covid-19 resilience funding granted during the pandemic to offset revenue losses.

It’s unlikely however that attention around his pay arrangements will dissipate in the meantime after he admitted his basic pay has jumped by €47,000 to €258,000 since 2020, While that wedge is board-approved, the 22% increase is far in excess of what increments frontline workers at the 240-strong organisation earned. It took several years for them to have their paycuts restored.

SIPTU, the union representing mostly lower paid workers, recently asserted they had lost faith in the FAI leadership over an ‘upstairs/downstairs’ culture.

According to Barrett and Hill, the chairman approved the holiday payment early in 2023 – despite advice to the contrary by board colleague and HR expert Liz Joyce – and the first the CEO knew of it was when the sum accompanied his monthly wages in March.

Hill referenced a chain of emails whereby this unorthodox policy was applied to another employee and he was treated similarly for his carryover of days not taken in 2022.

“In preparation for the Public Accounts Committee, we will need to see the emails that were sent and who initiated this conversation,” noted Dillon, the former Mayo GAA player and accountant.

“What’s evident today is that these payments were done in secret and part of a cosy arrangement.” Asked for his response afterwards, he was comfortable the matter was nearing closure and the relevant paper trail would corroborate his testimony.

“That's his (Dillon’s) opinion and he is entitled to his opinion,” said Hill, who continues to base himself in London since succeeding John Delaney as permanent CEO this month three years ago.

“I think Roy was very clear in relation to the process in relation to internally, coming from the finance director and going through the right channels he chose to take the decision that he did.

“There were a lot of additional questions asked of us in relation to further information and I'm sure we'll look at all of that in due course.”

Under the FAI’s bailout conditions, the CEO’s pay is restricted to what a senior civil servant receives but this episode – and the backlash from the Oireachtas committee to answers supplied by Barrett and Hill – has caused disgruntlement inside and outside of Abbotstown.

"I think staff are now fully aware of it because it is fully reported in the media,” Hill said about the scale of his pay rise, noting he isn’t entitled to bonuses for tournament qualification or main sponsorship, neither of which have happened during his reign.

"That was not something I asked for, it was something that was offered as part of the contract negotiation, as part of the MOU. That is what the contract is.

“That's how the contract is structured. As always, the board will look at that and review it."

Regardless of his protestations, elected officials were not impressed with what they heard on governance over the three-hour sitting.

Longford senator Micheál Carrigy was direct and action-led in his summation.

“We’ve had poor leadership in the FAI and it comes from the top,” said the Fine Gael representative, expressing his concern at the Department of Sport offering equivocal support for the FAI’s hierarchy.

“When we had issues with the boxing association a few years ago, it improved after the Chairman and chief executive left and maybe something similar can happen here.”