Ms Justice Sanfrey stated that the company board exercised its discretion not to discharge Mr Keating’s performance related pay “only because of the instructions of the shareholder” as it was the Government minister’s position that PRP should not be discharged to commercial semistate companies chiefs.
Mr Justice Sanfrey granted judgment in the amount of €297,863 and the port company’s annual report states that the €373,339 total was inclusive of interest. The case was heard in 2021. Mr Keating has been CEO since 2006. His pay last year totalled €178,125, comprising a salary of €117,500 and pension contributions and other emoluments of €60,625.
In his attached report on the port firm’s performance, Mr Keating said that while there was some contraction from the record 2021 financial performance “we are nevertheless delighted to report very robust earnings for the year”. “For only the second year in its history, the company recorded Ebitda [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation] surpassing €7 million and net cash from operations surpassing €6.5 million,” he said.The company employed 51 staff with employee costs totalling €4.5 million. At the end of December, the company had shareholder funds of €58.8 million, including accumulated profits of €31.7 million.