The Dublin Port Company disclosed in their 2023 annual report, that Eamonn O’Reilly, their former long-serving CEO, received an outstanding bonus payment of €415,000 as part of a High Court Settlement. The settlement, which included additional legal expenses amounting to €176,000, brought the total cost of the court action undertaken by the ex-chief executive to €626,000.
The high-court ruling which allowed this was set in motion in September 2022, when Shannon Foynes Port Company’s CEO, Pat Keating, was granted €373,339 in unpaid bonuses and interest for the period between 2010 to 2017. In this case, Justice Mark Sanfrey found the company’s directors at fault for not exercising their discretion to honour the bonus payments, thus causing the company to breach its contract, causing damage and loss to Mr Keating.
Inspired by this outcome, Mr O’Reilly commenced proceedings against Dublin Port Company in February 2023. The resolution of his case was a crucial factor which saw the company’s pre-tax profits decline by 28% to €35 million, whilst the company’s revenue remained steady at €101.4 million.
Contained within the Dublin Port Company’s 2023 annual report was a note that stated, due to the High court settlement reached in 2023, “The Dublin Port Company was compelled to issue specific performance-related payments amounting to €415,000 to the previous chief executive for the services he rendered during his tenure from 2010 to 2022”.
Additionally, the report highlighted that severance payments totalling €367,000 were made to separate staff members and that expenditure on hospitality rose from €142,000 to €144,000, which included €86,000 spent on staff and €58,000 spent on client entertainment.
Both Mr O’Reilly and Mr Keating were represented in their individual cases by Dundon Callanan Solicitors, a law firm based in Limerick. The dispute was officially closed in July, when a “notice of discontinuance” was issued.
Jerry Grant, the chair of the company, announced that the EBITDA (earnings before unusual items, net finance charges, tax, depreciation, amortisation, and impairment expenses) amounted to €56.7 million, seeing a fall of €2.6 million compared to 2022. Even while staff numbers stayed steady at 150, employee expenses witnessed a rise, reaching €16.48 million. As of the close of last December, the business boasted accumulated earnings totalling €586.98 million, and money reserves equivalent to €199.5 million.