THE former chairman of Bord na Mona, Mr Brendan Halligan, has admitted that pay deal of managing director Dr Eddie O'Connor did breach Government guidelines. It has also emerged that the gross cost of Dr O'Connor's settlement with the Government is close to £1 million (see panel).
Mr Halligan told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Commercial State Sponsored Bodies yesterday, that he realised in hindsight that the pay deal had breached the guidelines but that this had not been intentional. He said he had told successive Ministers for Energy that Dr O'Connor's pay conformed to the guidelines.
Mr Halligan confirmed that he had agreed Dr O'Connor could spend up to £15,000 a year as a "public affairs" budget. This expenditure did not have to be receipted in detail. "I believe that if Dr O'Connor had been required to vouch payments in detail from the budget as they occurred he would have been able to do so," he said.
Dr O'Connor, who did not attend yesterday's meeting, although asked to do so, sent a letter instead. In it he laid he still believed his pay deal, had not breached Government guidelines "either in spirit or in actuality".
He said any monies he ever got had been with the agreement of the chairman who, at the time, had been Mr Halligan.
The committee was also told by current chairman, Mr Pat Dineen, that Bord na Mona had spent £26,000 on wine while Dr O'Connor was managing director, not £2,000 as originally suggested. He also said that it had not been paid for by using some bartering system with French vineyards, which would get peat moss in exchange for wine. "The majority of the wine was bought from Dublin wine merchants", he, said.
"I thought it was ludicrous," he added. "I told them to dispose of the wine and to discontinue the practice immediately.
The committee heard prepared statements from Mr Halligan, Mr Dineen and the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, Mr Lowry. The Secretary to Mr Lowry's Department, Mr John Loughrey, also addressed the company, answered a range of questions afterwards.
Mr Lowry and Mr Loughrey separately denied the suggestion that there had been a hidden agenda behind Mr Dineen's appointment, which included the removal of Dr O'Connor. The problem with Dr O'Connor remuneration only came light after Mr Dineen was appointed, said Mr Loughrey.
Mr Lowry said that Dr O'Connor had been a very good managing director and denied that there had been an agenda to get rid of him.
Many committee members were highly critical of the way the which affair had been handled. Fianna Fail TD Mr Martin Cullen said there had "been a "witch hunt" to remove Dr O'Connor.
This was denied by Mr Lowry, who said that when it had become clear that Dr O'Connor's pay deal shad breached Government guidelines and the board was not united behind him, the Government had no option but to take action.
The Government suspended Dr O'Connor two weeks ago and subsequently negotiated a confidential settlement package with him, details of which were revealed to the committee yesterday.