Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 December 2013
5. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport in view of the recent top-up scandals if he intends to investigate significant unexplained extra payments and expenses, due to be returned, to executives and board members in Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54608/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraI have asked the Minister questions on the goings-on in Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company on numerous occasions since I entered the Dáil and I have not really got the answers. I have asked questions about the unexplained €19,877 paid to the CEO of the company by himself explained as money in lieu of holidays. I have asked questions about whether expenses wrongly claimed by a company director that were supposed to be paid back ever were paid back. We have never got a response about whether new employees were employed for the diaspora centre. There is a range of issues related to the pension fund and the treatment of the workers in the company. We have not received responses to any of these questions. What is the Minister doing to investigate these matters?
Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company, DLHC, is a commercial State company that operates under the harbours Acts. It is statutorily independent of the Government and not in receipt of any State funding. My Department is in regular contact with the company. Neither my Department nor I is aware of any significant unexplained additional payment or expense, due to be returned, to executives and board members in DLHC. As the Deputy will be aware, there is an outstanding matter in relation to the return of travel expenses paid to a former director in 2010 and 2011. The company has taken legal action to recover the amount outstanding. For this reason, it is not appropriate that I comment further on this matter.
In all dealings I have had with Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company, as with all of the port companies within my Department's remit, I have placed considerable emphasis on my policy that it should meet the highest standards of good governance. This was reiterated in the national ports policy which I published in March 2013.
Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company has confirmed to my Department that there have been no salary increases for DLHC management since 2008. The company also advises that no bonuses have been awarded since 2009. The company’s annual accounts which are laid before the Oireachtas and made publically available each year disclose the fees and expenses claimed by the directors of DLHC. The company has stated all expenses are rigorously audited by the internal auditor on a quarterly basis and that a full annual audit is undertaken by the company's external auditor.
I am due to receive the 2013 unaudited annual accounts which cover the full calendar year of 2013 from the company by the end of February 2014. The final accounts, when received, will then be forwarded to my Department's financial adviser for assessment and any issue arising will be followed up. The annual accounts will then be submitted to the Government and laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas.
In a question to him earlier this year in which I asked about the additional payment of approximately €20,000 to the CEO of DLHC, the Minister said the explanation given to him was as follows:
The additional payment of €19,877 relates to payment in lieu of untaken holidays or untaken leave. My Department wrote to the chairperson, whose term has ended, stating that we did not accept this payment of €19,877 and that it should not have been made. When a new chairman is appointed this matter will be taken up with the new chairperson and resolved.
That is what the Minister said at the time. When will the question in relation to this unexplained approximately payment of €20,000 to the CEO be answered? The CEO of this small semi-State company is paid a salary of €136,000 per annum, a car allowance of €20,000 per annum and board fees of €12,000 per annum. As I understand it, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, ruled out by order last year the payment of board fees to executives. Is the payment of board fees to the CEO which is no longer permitted being looked into? This is all happening against the background of staff members being laid off, pay cuts of between 30% and 40% being sought by the company, major bullying and intimidation of staff and a crisis in the company's pension fund. It has been suggested that while the employees' pension fund is in trouble, the gold plated pension fund for the executives is not. I would welcome a response from the Minister on these issues.
I cannot respond in any detail to the Deputy's question on the pension fund. It is a matter that would have to be raised with the company and the trustees. On the issue of board fees, the CEO does not receive such fees. In regard to the payment of approximately €20,000 referred to by the Deputy, that payment related to 2011 and was made in lieu of untaken leave of 38 days. I have corresponded extensively on this matter with the chairperson who is of the view that this will not happen again. The reality is that the CEO had 38 days untaken leave, in respect of which he was paid. The alternative would have been to allow him to take 38 days leave at the end of his term.
It is accepted that approximately €20,000 should not have been paid. Will it be repaid? The Central Remedial Clinic scandal of top-up payments which were in breach of the cap and which rightly caused uproar is under investigation by the HSE because it is a body that is within the remit of the State. Should this not apply to all semi-State companies, including a small company such as Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company, the CEO of which is on a salary of €136,000 per annum, which is more than a Minister is paid, a car allowance of €20,000 per annum and who has also been paid an unexplained additional €20,000? The Minister can correct me if I am wrong, but as I understand it, payment in lieu of untaken leave is not permitted in the public sector. The payment of €20,000 equates to 38 days leave. No one working in the public sector has 38 days leave per annum. To boot, staff at DLHC have told me the CEO did take holiday leave that year. This is strange stuff and there are a series of questions that need to be answered. The Government needs to take a more hands on approach to ensure we know the remuneration, including bonuses, being paid to top executives of the HSE and other public bodies within the remit of the State who are paid with public money in order that we know whether they are creaming it, while ordinary employees are being shafted.
Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company is a State-owned enterprise. It does not receive any public money and is not part of the public sector. As such, comparisons with the CRC are invalid. The issue raised by the Deputy relates to 2011, the year in which I took up office. As I understand it, the CEO was paid for 38 days untaken leave. The chairman has confirmed that this practice will not continue. Whatever about the amount paid, if any other employee had untaken leave, he or she would demand that they be allowed to take it or be paid in lieu of it.
