BORD na Mona chief executive, Dr Eddie O'Connor, has told the board of the company that he will be unable to attend next Monday's crucial board meeting at which his remuneration.package was due to be discussed.
This emerged last night as it became clear that motions of no confidence have not been tabled against Dr O'Connor. It is understood that company chairman, Mr Pat Dineen will insist that Dr O'Connor attends the meeting.
Sources say notice of any motions affecting Dr O'Connor would have to have been given several days in advance of Monday's meeting, and it now seems highly unlikely such a motion will be put to the board.
If he attends, Dr O'Connor will be asked to explain several aspects of his remuneration package to the board at Monday's special meeting. If the board is still unhappy with the replies it gets, it would then have to decide its next move.
This could include informing the Minister for Energy, Mr Lowry, that it feels Dr O'Connor's situation is untenable.
It would then be up to the Minister to decide whether he should be removed.
Board sources said last night that the board was likely to tell Mr Lowry that Dr O'Connor's pay package breached Government guidelines and that the board should have been informed of the details of Dr O'Connor's pay package.
The board is said to be unhappy with aspects of Dr O'Connor's package, including some of the £66,000 unreceipted expenses which he claimed over the past nine years.
The money was paid to him by cheques drawn in favour of a bank, cashed at the bank and the cash in turn paid to Dr O'Connor. He also claimed £53,000 in personal expenses over the nine years, according to the Price Waterhouse report.
Dr O'Connor has taken issue with several aspects of the detailed report and has argued that the personal value of his package was totally overstated.
Apart from the chairman of the board, the Bord na Mona board also has to ensure that the chief executives remuneration conforms with Government guidelines.
The board must also comply with any directives regarding, remuneration, "which the Minister may give from time to time to the board with the consent of the Minister for Finance", according to the 1990 Turf Board Act.
However, Dr O'Connor contends that the then board mandated the former chairman, Mr Brendan Halligan, to negotiate his remuneration in confidence.
Mr Halligan read a prepared statement to Wednesday's board meeting, the fifth such meeting since controversy over the chief executive's remuneration package began.
Sources say Mr Halligan spoke for 20-25 minutes and then answered questioned.
"The board was very happy to see him," said one source, but declined to say whether the board was satisfied with the responses to the queries raised.
Another source said Mr Halligan confirmed that he had agreed aspects of Dr O'Connor's pay one of which was a monthly sum which Dr O'Connor could use in any way he saw fit to raise the public profile of the organisation.
It was confirmed in the Dail yesterday that from 1993-1996 Mr Halligan told various Ministers for Energy that Government guidelines on the pay of chief executives were being complied with. Mr Halligan was unavailable for comment.
