A small number of the senior management team at the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) are to be excluded from its voluntary early retirement scheme, AgriLand understands.
In recent days letters have been issued from the association’s headquarters offering voluntary early retirement to a number of its staff across the country – aged between 50 and 63 years.
It is understood that the package on the table offers a total of three weeks’ pay for every year of service within the farm lobby group – with a minimum tenure set at one and a half years.
The move comes at a time when the organisation – which has approximately 72,000 members – appears to be positioning itself for a number of reforms in a bid to balance and sustain the association’s finances and membership going forward.
The IFA has declined to comment on the matter.
IFA accounts
According to the IFA’s latest financial accounts for the year ended March 31, 2019, the association recorded a deficit for the year at €933,307.
Its income for 2019 was reported at €15,990,214; total expenditure for the 12-month period was recorded as €16,231,899.
An analysis of the group’s expenditure shows that total staff costs amounted to €5,349,625.
- Director general: €185,350 (salary); €27,802 (employer pension contribution).
- Executive management team: €412,639 (salary); €105,919 (employer pension contribution).
- National Council: €246,150 (labour replacement paid in financial year), less €61,968 (effect of accrual release), resulting in a net amount of €184,182.
- President: €57,896* (‘gross agreed salary’).
* In 2018, the president’s ‘gross agreed salary’ was reported as €120,000, less director’s fees from outside bodies of €58,518. This resulted in a net cost to the IFA of €61,482.
In the 2019 accounts – the subject of this article – there is no reference to ‘director’s fees from outside bodies’. One might reasonably assume that the president still receives such additional income, albeit not referenced in these accounts.
Meanwhile, the IFA’s most recent financial report also states that the average remuneration for the top 15 staff after the executive management was: €99,047 (salary); plus €23,327 (employer pension contribution).
Total staff costs for 2019 – across the IFA – were €5,349,625.