He’s all over the media and we’re told he’s just picked up a pension worth €800,000. That means he must have been good at his job, right? He’s the retiring Dublin Port Company chief executive. He’s Enda Connellan.
Here’s the background on the man hitting the headlines this week.
Name: Enda Connellan.
Position: Enda is winding up his time with the semi-state company and is no doubt looking forward to flapping about in a big pile of money when he retires at the end of the week.
Official job: Dublin Port Company chief executive, he’s worked for the company for 33 years.
Isn’t he seven years short of the standard 40-years’ service many pension schemes require to qualify for a full pension? Spot on. It was likely Mr Connellan was given the €800,000 top-up to make up for the remaining seven years of service and bring his pension up to 40 years’ value.  Dublin Port Company confirmed “added years” had been given to Mr Connellan through the pension top-up, but refused to say what his overall pension package was worth. It must be some wedge.
How did this fella manage to get a huge golden handshake when there are thousands of people scrambling for work in this country? To make matters worse, Dublin Port Company did not seek permission from Finance Minister Brian Lenihan before awarding the tax free top-up to Mr Connellan because there is currently no legal requirement for it to do so. On top of the basic salary of €239,000 he received last year, plus other benefits totalling €66,000, his total pay packet came to €317,000 in 2009.
Will this be a common occurrence for semi-state CEOs from now on? It doesn’t look likely. Chief executives of semi-state companies like Bord Gais, the ESB, An Post and the Dublin Airport Authority are facing possible pay cuts after Mr Lenihan ordered a review.
What did the politicians make of it? “There has been a ‘Bord Snip’ report drawn up for the public sector but nothing for the semi-states. We have the Colm McCarthy group looking at possible privatisation of the semi-states but we need a group that will look at cutting costs.” – Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar speaking after the revelation of the pension payout to Mr Connellan.
Team supported: Liverpool, we think. With all that spare change he could start a consortium with the Chinese businessmen looking to take over Anfield.
Random fact: Despite all he has earned down through the years and what he has to look forward to, Enda likes to have homemade ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch every day. Honest.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
