The Shannon Foynes Port Company last year incurred legal costs of €357,008 arising from the successful High Court action its chief, Pat Keating, took against the port firm over unpaid bonuses.
In 2022, the High Court ruled that the Shannon Foynes Port Company would have to pay Mr Keating €373,339 unpaid bonuses from 2010 to 2017.
The firm’s 2023 annual report discloses that the €357,008 in fees from legal proceedings “relate to invoiced and received expenditure concerning third-party legal costs arising from a legal case with an employee where judgment was issued in favour of the plaintiff during 2022″.
In response to the court action taken by Mr Keating against his employer, Mr Justice Mark Sanfrey ruled that, in September 2022, a failure by the port company directors to use their discretion to pay the bonus “constitutes a breach by the company of the contract which has caused damage and loss to Mr Keating”.
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The ruling paved the way for former Dublin Port Company chief executive Eamonn O’Reilly to lodge similar successful proceedings against the company in February 2023 and it paid Mr O’Reilly €415,000 in unpaid bonuses last year.
Limerick law firm Dundon Callanan Solicitors represented both Mr O’Reilly and Mr Keating in their respective cases.
The annual report reveals that pretax profits at Shannon Foynes Port Company last year increased by 14 per cent to €4.8 million. This followed revenues dipping marginally from €15.89 million to €15.75 million.
In his statement accompanying the accounts, Mr Keating states he was pleased to report “another robust performance for the year with strong profitability despite challenging economic conditions and national climate action obligations impacting underlying traded sectors”.
He said that the firm’s two directly managed terminals, at Limerick and Foynes, increased throughputs “resulting in ebitda [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation] exceeding €7.3 million for just the second time in the company’s history”.
He said that “significant opportunities exist in the medium to long term for the port in supply chain development for offshore wind and expanding our freight and logistics capacity”.
Chairperson Michael Walsh – appointed in March of this year – in his statement said that “the port remains in a strong financial position with a balance sheet worth of €62.9 million”
In 2023, the company paid a dividend of €325,000. The firm employs 50 and staff costs last year totalled €4.45 million.
The staff’s short-term benefits included €210,474 in performance-related pay. Key management personnel shared €585,822 in salaries and short-term employee benefits.
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