New IMO president will not accept stipend

MARTIN WALL, Industry Correspondent in Killarney

The new president of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) Dr Matt Sadlier has said he will not accept any financial stipend for his position pending a new review of governance in the organisation.

Speaking after taking up office this morning, he said he was aware that presidents of the doctors’ trade union did receive a payment for their period in office but did not know until over the last year how much was involved or how it was calculated.

Dr Sadlier said he had never raised questions about the remuneration package of the former chief executive of the IMO George McNeice.

The IMO has been in turmoil since it emerged before Christmas that Mr McNeice had left the organisation with a retirement package worth €9.7 milllion.

Mr McNeice’s contract left the organisation with a potential liability of nearly €25 million but this was reduced following negotiations.

Mr McNeice has said that his remuneration details were not a secret and that some people in the organisation were aware of them.

The IMO leadership has said it did not know about the details of Mr McNeice’s contract which was negotiated with a former president, now deceased, in 2003.

However yesterday the organisation’s leadership confirmed for the first time that stipends paid to its presidents were linked directly to the pay of the chief executives.

Presidents received about 25 per cent of the chief executive’s pay for their year in office.

The IMO said past presidents were unaware of how this stipend was calculated.

Mr McNeice originally received pay of around €250,000 under his 2003 contract but by 2008 this had increased to €493,000.

Dr Sadlier is a consultant psychiatrist in Dublin. He said that his hobby was stand up comedy and that he had appeared on stage on a number of occasions and a a festival in Canada.