The Former General Secretary of the IFA , Pat Smith earned 3.4 million euro in the past seven years in pay and pension contributions.
A report into pay and governance at the Irish Farmers Association is recommending that an external expert look at top salaries and that the President should not be involved in setting pay.
Clare native Con Lucey’s review however says the pay of IFA executives is broadly in line with levels in the public sector.
As part of this review of the IFA, the details of Pat Smith’s salary for the past seven years are published for the first time. Mr Smith started on a package of 469,430 euro in 2009 – rising to 542,634 in 2013, before fallng back slightly in the past two years.
This level of remuneration is what so shocked ordinary farmers, who were making an average of 25,000 euro last year.
It’s also emerged that each President was given a lump sum of one year’s salary – on leaving office, last year Eddie Downey’s earned 156,000 euro from the IFA.
IFA economist Con Lucey is recommending that an external expert look at the IFA’s structure and transparency.
Mr Lucey also says that the President should no longer be involved in setting pay.
Furthermore he says that the role of General Secretary should effectively be split into a CEO and the new role of Secretary, who crucially must be independent from the CEO.
