State-owned firms' bosses face 20 per cent pay cuts
Sunday December 20 2009
The top brass in the semi-state sector could face pay cuts of up to 20 per cent, but it is unlikely the cuts will happen before next summer.
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan indicated he wanted to bring down the pay levels of all those working in the semi-state sector, but was forced to retreat to talking merely about those in the CEO's chair.
Given many of the semi-state bodies operate in monopolistic or dominant positions, the extravagant remuneration packages for CEOs in the semi-state sector have come into sharp focus after escaping unscathed in the Budget.
It has emerged that Mr Lenihan left the semi-states alone because his officials felt it would have been politically impossible to impose cuts on the public and semi-state sector at the same time.
It was also suggested yesterday that the situation of semi-state CEOs being paid far in excess what cabinet ministers is no longer tolerable.
Some of those to be hit hardest are Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) CEO Declan Collier, who is paid €348,000 a year and whose total package is worth a staggering €635,000 a year; Dr John Lynch of CIE, who received a sweetheart pension top-up; David Gunning of Coillte, who is paid €489,000 a year and ESB chief Padraig McManus, who is paid over €420,000 a year.
The DAA has been the subject of much criticism lately, particularly over the controversial building of Terminal 2, at a cost of over €2bn at a time when passenger numbers are falling sharply. It has also been criticised for increasing airport charges.
The huge salary paid to Mr Collier has been heavily criticised by Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary, who described him as a mere "waste of space".
He said: "Collier is nothing more than a waste of space, who gets rewarded with almost €700,000 a year. The DAA has been bankrupted by the abortive second terminal that nobody wants. He is overseeing the demise of Dublin Airport and, what's worse, Lenihan appoints him to the board of AIB as a public interest director. Totally ludicrous, but unfortunately utterly predictable for this useless Government."
Fine Gael's Transport spokesman in the Seanad Paschal Donohoe said: "The chief executive of the Dublin Airport Authority is paid well over twice the salary of our Minister for Transport and over €270,000 more than the President McAleese.
"This level of salary was wrong when the country was flush with money but is simply unaffordable now . . . Urgent steps must be taken to address salaries."
Also likely to be hit badly is CIE chairman Dr Lynch, who has been the subject of criticism from Transport Minister Noel Dempsey over his running of the company.
Mr Dempsey criticised Dr Lynch publically for delaying the company's accounts and for breaching procurement procedures. CIE received €300m in a state subvention this year, yet racked up losses of €39m.
Full report: Business Page 3
- DANIEL McCONNELL Chief Reporter
Originally published in
