Ex-IFA chief warns group against releasing his salary details

The former general secretary of the Irish Farmers’ Association for 25 years up to 2009 has warned it not to release details of his salary as they are covered by a confidentiality agreement.

Michael Berkery served as general secretary prior to Pat Smith, who resigned last week amid growing anger from farmers over the scale of his salary and pension package, which was €445,000 in 2014 and €535,000 in 2013.

In an escalating war of words with the association, Mr Smith has claimed his basic pay was less than Mr Berkery received, a suggestion the IFA has so far declined to confirm or deny.

In a letter read out to members at Wednesday’s emergency meeting of the IFA’s executive council, Mr Smith stated his total annual remuneration, exclusive of pension entitlements, was €295,000 in 2014 and 2015.

He said this was “significantly less” than the salary and bonus paid to Mr Berkery in 2007 and 2008.

Mr Berkery, who is now the chairman of FBD insurance, is understood to have written to the association reminding it of its legal obligation not to reveal details of his salary, noting his contract was covered by a confidentiality clause.

In response to the current pay debacle, the IFA has commissioned its former chief economist Con Lucey to carry out a review of pay and pensions across the upper echelons of the organisation, albeit only as far back as 2009 when Mr Smith was appointed general secretary.

‘More damage’

Carlow county chairman and former vice-president Derek Deane said Mr Smith’s statement on Thursday, offering to give half of his €2 million severance package, which the IFA is refusing to pay, to charity had made “matters worse”.

“Pat Smith is trying to do more damage and I’d be concerned that people don’t fall for it,” he said.

Mr Smith’s severance deal is on top of his €2.7 million pension pot,

Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin, speaking on Friday during an engagement at Ringaskiddy, Co Cork, said farmers were “knocked out of their socks” by the IFA pay revelations.

He said one of the Coalition’s first actions had been to cap public-sector salaries to show leadership in a difficult economic climate.

“So nobody at that stage was paid any more than €200,000.

That was the Taoiseach’s salary at the time. I am afraid I have reduced it further since. And nobody, even in our bigger State companies, must be paid more than €250,000.

“I think it’s an extraordinary salary – obviously the IFA is a private company, but it has ordinary, hard-working people who contribute to that.”

Disbelief

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney described revelations about IFA pay as “extraordinary” and said Irish farmers were right to demand appropriate salaries were paid.

Speaking in Limerick, he described his disbelief when he heard former IFA president Eddie Downey had agreed a €2 million severance package for Mr Smith.

“I just couldn’t believe it when I heard that. It seems like an extraordinary amount of money and it’s made farmers very angry and that’s part of the mix that the IFA needs to deal with to rebuild trust with their members.

“I think what we have seen over the past number of days has shocked a lot of ordinary farmers and members.

“They want to see those mistakes corrected. They want to see full transparency in that process and they want to see appropriate remuneration levels for people who are employed by their organisation and they are right to demand all of those things.”

European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan, also speaking in Limerick, said: “I am not going to get dragged in.

“I am not going to comment on internal matters of a farm organisation who have difficult issues to resolve themselves and they have set up a structure in order to resolve them. ”