THE TRANSPORT MINISTER Leo Varadkar has written to the Dublin Airport Authority asking it not to pay its chief executive a €100,000 bonus set aside for him.
DAA accounts published today showed that the authority returned to profitability last year despite the continual flight disruptions caused by the Icelandic ash cloud – ending up over €33m in the black for the twelve months to December 31.
Included in its accounts was a performance-related bonus of €106,000 for the CEO, Declan Collier – a provision Varadkar said he was “very dissatisfied with”, according to RTÉ News.
A spokesman for the minister told the national broadcaster it was government policy that no performance-relayed payments be paid to anyone on the public payroll for 2010.
As a result, Varadkar had written to DAA demanding that the bonus not be paid – but the DAA’s board believes it is obliged to offer the bonus under the terms of Collier’s contract, according to Ingrid Miley on RTÉ’s Six One.
The majority of the bonus had been deferred, with the Irish Times explaining that the remainder is not due to the paid until the end of his contract.
Collier’s total earnings for 2010 reached €612,500 – including a basic salary of €308,500, and a pension and benefits package worth €182,100.
The bonuses were made up of an annual incentive of €64,800 and a long-term incentive of another €41,300.
The accounts come two days after Brendan Howlin outlined a new pay scheme for those on the public payroll – which would limit the salary of Collier’s successor to €250,000.
The Irish Examiner added that DAA, which operates the airports at Cork and Shannon as well as Dublin, had recorded a loss of over €13m for 2009.
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