Gallery director given payment of €40,000 for UK visits

A €40,000 additional payment to the director of the National Gallery of Ireland did not represent a top-up of his salary, the chair of the gallery's board Olive Braiden has said.

Speaking at the Public Accounts Committee today, Ms Braiden said Sean Rainbird had been granted €8,000 a year - based on 40 annual trips to see his family in London at €200 per time - which was paid to him as an upfront tax free payment shortly after he began his five year term.

She told the committee the salary on offer for the post, some €99,236, proved a problem in attracting people of the calibre required to move to Ireland to be director of the gallery, which she said was one of the finest in the world.

The international search for a new director took some 18 months and, having secured an appropriate candidate, the gallery took the view that the new director should be no worse off after taking up the position than if he lived in Ireland, she said.

Ms Braiden said the “brevity” of Mr Rainbird’s contract and the “state of flux” in the Irish property market meant he was not in a position to relocate his family.

She said the Department of Arts had sanctioned Mr Rainbird’s salary and the payment of “reasonable vouched removal expenses” to enable him to take the role. Clarification was sought as to how to pay the expenses and the department said the board should “itself interpret the wording in the sanction letter”.

Independent TD Shane Ross said a €200 bill for a round trip to London seemed expensive to him, and that prices on airline websites suggested it could have been done for much less.

Ms Braiden said the €200 sum was fair as it covered Mr Rainbird’s airfares and transport to and from the airport

“I certainly couldn’t make a round trip to London for €200,” she said.

Mr Ross replied: "You probably don't fly Ryanair. "

Mr Rainbird said he was visiting his family 45 to 50 times a year and that there were often last minute changes to bookings which added to the cost and that the allowance was working out about right.

The committee heard that the gallery sought tax advice about the payment which increased the overall cost to some €87,000, which was being covered from its own resources.

Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy told the committee that vouched expenses of €3,700 were received by the gallery from Mr Rainbird for 2012. He took up the role in April of that year.

Mr Ross said, in his view, the €40,000 figure represented a salary top-up.

Ms Braiden said it was not a top up but rather the simplest way of attracting a candidate of Mr Rainbird’s calibre and ensuring he was not worse off after taking the job.