Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

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.

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