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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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The previous government would have just allowed these things to pass unnoticed. Great to see ministers who are starting at the top!
Exactly
It’s his god damn job to make profits. Is €308k+ salary not enough?
He deserves recognition alright but stop squandering money we don’t have
Any bonus, public, private or semi-private company should have “ability to pay” disclosure enforced by law. If company isn’t making money (ie. can’t afford to pay), there is no bonus.
Simples :)
When someone in public or semi-public sector does a good job it is appropriate to give them a bonus. Similarly when they do not do a good job there should be a mechanism to punish them. In this case Mr Collier has turned a profit for the company despite a very difficult year. We should seek to incentivise productivity in the public sector. Therefore I think he should be paid his bonus.
Ordinarily i would agree that performance should be incentivised, but all DAA staff had to take a significant pay cut for that profit to be achieved. So why should he receive a bonus?? Should’nt all staff at the airport in the interests of fairness??
DAA chief has an obscenely high level of rewards. I hope Leo shows that the gov has teeth. The DAA board should be sacked en bloc.
Collier out!!! Ter Fitz, I doubt its deserved,I think these profits are as a result of the DAA selling assets in Europe and through ripping off passengers,not through good management and passenger numbers anyway!! They are not telling the full story here and thats a fact!!!!!
They’re a disgrace of an organisation,probably on par with the FAI if thats possible!! They also constantly hamper Shannon and Cork’s operation and possible growth!!!!!!
Rubbish. Dublin subsidises Cork and Shannon’s losses. Why the hell would they want to hamper something they own?? That’s nothing more than chip on the shoulder Rest of Country V Dublin stuff.
Oh more bullshit! Hampering Cork and Shannon..like building them new terminals and having lower charges than Dublin to incentivise growth, and paying for their losses. Sounds awful! Just face it – the market isnt as big and having an airport in every county in the western seaboard eating into the diminishing market doesnt help either! But dont let the facts get in the way of the chip on the shoulder horseshit that o’leary wants you to believe.
Cork airport saddles its own debt by the way,if you believe the daa takes this you are very mistaken.another awesome decision between clueless cullen and dempsey
Are ya joking! If it’s deserved it should be paid! And with 33 million in profit its deserved I think. Pay the man what he is owed. Like Varakar himself is worth 150k a year! Don’t think so. At least the DAA is making a few quid for a state company. Get real.
At the expense of Cork Airport which they saddle with a huge debt.
If he guided the DAA through the last year and made a profit of €33m, he deserves his bonus. Fair play to him. After all that’s what a bonus is for.
If we want competent people occupying important and responsible positions, we must reward them when they do well. A result based bonus is fair. No result – no bonus.
Well said. Couldn’t agree more.
His package is over 600k in 2010. This is definitely in excess of what would be fair pay.
Fees went up and staff got sacked. That’s big money saved = big fat bonus. DAA are d**ks.
Here we go again,…….lets all jump on the Varadkar band wagon this time. Look he has written a strongly worded letter to Collier stating he’s not happy with his nice bonus “am very dissatisfied with you declan”. Same old shite all talk no action.
Agreed. When will people see through ‘all-hat-no-cattle’ vradkar?
Side issue to deflect from the fact that the country’s fucked and the government are totally inept.
Say how you feel Oil.
The DAA is NOT a business. It’s a cash collection agency. They increase profits by increasing landing charges. They get away with this because the are a monopoly. A monkey could make profit at a monopoly.
Paul, I can only partially agree, the fact business is monopoly does not guarantee financial success, although I agree its easier to maintain profit in monopoly. As an example take Polish Rail (short PKP in Poland) – they are state owned monopoly, but due to fatal management and poorly performed privatization in recent years they are over 1 billion of euros in debt. Dublin airport would be substantially easier to manage of course, due to much lesser size (PKP employs in total over 100K of people) and much lesser complicity, but still, if DAA was bad managers they could threat their business a lot. Beautiful Terminal 2 rollout and surplus profit makes me think their bosses might deserve bonuses after all.
@fizi water – I appreciate your argument and the way you made it.
You are of course correct in stating that the DAA needs to be well managed.
But isn’t that what the guy gets an outrageously high salary for in the first place. Why are we giving him a bonus 3X the average salary for doing his job.
oil totaly agree with you the quicker the country wakes up to leo and co hoodwinking them the better
Nama’s unaudited accounts show a sum of €46 million for “administrative expenses”.
All the shit about judges, DAA, semi state CEOs is a bullshit smokescreen.
Cop on people.
By the way, the DAA dont receive a penny of tax payers money. I think that point should be made clear in the interests of fairness. Anything they spend is raised commercially.
Oh sorry redthumber, cant handle an actual fact, can you not? Doesnt suit your agenda?
Well, I’m unsure if he deserves it or not, but I’m glad to see Leo speaking out (undue or not)
Having to deal with that immature loudmouth, bullying, clown in Ruinair must make the man worth the bonus !
So I notice corrupt is still alive & kicking in Ireland……disgusting indeed!!!!
Finn really makes me laugh,what an idiot,if the daa are subsidising why wont they let cork and shannon be independent????? Ask the daa about the shannon to vienna route? ? You probably dont work at an airport so you havnt a clue.what about colliers banking exploits?i suppose you support that too.dope
Yes, i do work at airports, and spent most of mtmy career at shannon. You didnt read my earlier posts – i dont support collier. But it doesnt change the fact that SNN and ORK lose money despite having lowet charges to draw airlines in. And i work for the airlines and spent most of my career at shannon you fucking tool.
Go on get!
Pay the man he earned it and moreover, hold him up as an example and move more pay to profit related. Maybe those in charge in other state (ish) bodies would focus on getting results.
Leo is no messing around, I remember him as he was still around Blanchardstown. This country needs more people like him, seriously.
Did the fine bankers performance scheme not teach us anything.if judged on jobs created and new flights to airports would give a more deserved bonus of 0.
Feck it, give him 200k…..
and while we’re on the subject of money for nothing.
can I get 20k for a shiny new car… Thanks Santa/EU/IMF
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