The annual ‘Town Hall Rich List’ published by the Taxpayer’s Alliance shows that the Chief Executive of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (FODC), Brendan Hegarty received a financial package totalling £127,200 in the last financial year.

Bearing in mind that the British Prime Minister earns £150,400 and is responsible for the policy and decisions of the UK Government, while Mr. Hegarty and the other local government Chief Executives are responsible for the management of the day to day operation of their council areas, the Taxpayer’s Alliance publishes the list each year to hold UK councils to account.
“Talking about money is the last British taboo,” said Jan Zeber of the Tax Payer’s Alliance, a campaign group dedicated to reforming taxes, cutting spending and protecting taxpayers.
“Straightforwardly asking about income [is] unthinkable. This is perhaps one of the reasons why our annual ‘Town Hall Rich List’ – a comprehensive review of the number of non-teaching council staff receiving over £100,000 – elicits such a strong response,” he added.
Of the 11 Chief Executives in Northern Ireland, everyone earned over £100,000, but only Suzanne Wylie of Belfast City Council earns more than Theresa May, by taking home an annual package of £159,000.
Mr. Hegarty is second from the bottom of the ladder in terms of salaries in the province. In the 2016-17 financial year, his £127,200 package included a salary of £106,000, plus an employer pension contribution of £21,200. The same amount was earned by the Chief Executive of Mid Ulster District Council. The only Chief Executive to earn less was the head of the Causeway Coast District Council, who took home £123,000.
Annual accounts available on the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council website show that Mr. Hegarty’s 2016-17 salary was down from his £108,000 salary in 2015-16.
Meanwhile, Alison McCullagh, the Director of Regeneration and Planning; Robert Gibson, the Director of Community, Health and Leisure and Kevin O’Gara, the Director of Environment and Place each had a salary increase from £78,000 in 2015-16 to £81,000 in 2016-17. Celine McCartan was appointed as Director of Corporate Services and Governance in February 2017, with a salary of £78,000.
“On the one hand it seems like a tasteless breach of people’s privacy,” Mr. Zeber said, continuing: “Yet a look behind the veil reveals something which feels wrong to people who could never imagine having earnings approaching those figures.”
He recognises that the public may ask “what is the point?” or wonder “what will be achieved” by revealing figures that are publicly available in the councils’ annual accounts.
According to the Tax Payer’s Alliance, “the answer is surprisingly subtle.”
Mr. Zeber explained: “A local authority is not a business … Where in a business it is relatively easy to, for example, peg an annual bonus to the amount of profit generated in that year, no such possibility exists when it comes to provision of public services.”
He argues that in the absence of a business-style performance measurement, “we need some other way of ensuring that public sector pay is not arbitrary and at least to some extent linked to performance.”
None of the senior management team on FODC received bonus payments or benefits in kind.
A spokesman for FODC said: “Pay for all Council employees including the Chief Executive is set and agreed nationally and Fermanagh and Omagh District Council implements the nationally agreed pay and terms and conditions for all employees. In the case of the Chief Executive this salary scale was determined in November 2013 prior to the establishment of the new Councils on 1 April 2015 and Fermanagh and Omagh District Council have continued to apply this nationally determined salary scale.”