{"id":78304,"date":"2025-09-22T06:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T06:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/78304\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T06:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T06:29:07","slug":"bord-na-mona-halted-ceos-grossing-up-payments-for-fear-of-public-outcry-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/78304\/","title":{"rendered":"Bord na M\u00f3na halted CEO\u2019s \u2018grossing up\u2019 payments for fear of public outcry \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

State-owned energy company Bord na M\u00f3na<\/a> halted a controversial payment for its chief executive worth an estimated \u20ac57,000 annually after officials said continuing the \u201cunsanctioned\u201d earnings risked undermining public pay policy. <\/p>\n

The payment, which covered benefit-in-kind taxes on Tom Donnellan\u2019s health insurance and company car, has been dropped from a new contract signed by the chief executive in April, the company confirmed. <\/p>\n

It comes after fears, laid out in internal papers drawn up by the Department of Public Expenditure<\/a> (DPER), that continuing the payment could cause public outcry.<\/p>\n

In a submission to Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers<\/a> last February, DPER officials said that the payment was \u201cunsanctioned\u201d, and outlined that it \u201cundermines the principle\u201d whereby someone receiving a taxable benefit \u2013 such as a company car \u2013 is the one who pays the tax on it.<\/p>\n

Mr Donnellan has been in receipt of the payment, alongside his salary of \u20ac225,000, since at least 2023.<\/p>\n

The benefit \u2013 known as \u201cgrossing up\u201d \u2013 \u201cposes significant public perception risks,\u201d the officials told Mr Chambers after a contract extension and higher salary was sought for Mr Donnellan. <\/p>\n

\u201c[The arrangement] was put in place without sanction, and amounts to an increase in remuneration of approximately \u20ac57,000 (25 per cent). If sanction were to be conveyed to continue this arrangement, it would legitimise the arrangement and consequently undermine public pay policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The files were released under the Freedom of Information Act.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Road ahead for public-sector chiefs\u2019 pay fraught with political perilOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Documents show that the department agreed in April to offer a three-year extension to Mr Donnellan\u2019s contract on his existing salary of \u20ac225,000. DPER stipulated that \u201cno grossing up arrangements can be in place, and the incidence of taxation for any benefits must fall upon the recipient.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Bord na M\u00f3na confirmed that Mr Donnellan\u2019s contract was extended \u201cand remuneration terms are fully in line with the approvals granted\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is understood the department had approved the previous package and the company had taken advice on the grossing up, which sources said was in line with advice received.<\/p>\n

The Government has faced a cascade of representations by State bodies following a decision by the Cabinet in April to loosen restrictions on top-level pay in commercial State companies imposed in 2011 following the economic crash. It had put in place a process to review pay at the top levels of the commercial semistate sector.<\/p>\n

\"IrishIrish Rail chief executive Mary Considine. <\/p>\n

Ministers in recent weeks have given the go-ahead for a \u20ac75,000 increase in the salary rate for the head of Irish Rail<\/a>. The rail company said Mary Considine, former chief executive of the Shannon Airport Group, had been appointed at a salary of \u20ac300,000<\/a>. Irish Rail said this was in keeping with the salary band provided for the post by the recent Government review.<\/p>\n

Pay for the top post at Irish Rail had previously been set at \u20ac225,000 but the Department of Transport said it could not fill the position at this salary. <\/p>\n

An Post<\/a> chairman Kieran Mulvey is understood to have written to the Government pressing it to provide the company\u2019s board with new salary bands to facilitate a recruitment process for a new chief executive. An Post boss David McRedmond is scheduled to leave next year.<\/p>\n

State-owned companies such as the ESB, Gas Networks Ireland, Uisce \u00c9ireann and Bus \u00c9ireann have urged the Government to review pay for their chief executives, while the Land Development Agency this weekend said that its chief executive\u2019s pay \u201cranks significantly behind\u201d commercial and public sector equivalents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State-owned energy company Bord na M\u00f3na halted a controversial payment for its chief executive worth an estimated \u20ac57,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[13803,52686,79,42426,24001,18,19,17,13419,26736,18888],"class_list":{"0":"post-78304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-an-post","9":"tag-bord-na-mona","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-department-of-public-expenditure-and-reform","12":"tag-department-of-transport","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-irish-rail","17":"tag-jack-chambers","18":"tag-land-development-agency"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}