Kenny Jacobs will receive a sum in the region of €480,000 from DAA after standing down as chief executive. The agreement effectively puts an end to his High Court action against the airports operator.
It also concludes the biggest row for decades in a semi-State company. The fallout between both parties had culminated in Jacobs’s suspension before Christmas as he faced a new disciplinary investigation into 20 separate complaints against him.
The issues behind the complaints have never been publicly disclosed. After a year of turmoil at the top of DAA, the chief executive is leaving the business only three years into his seven-year term.
Jacobs went to the High Court in January, claiming the board of DAA was objectively biased against him as he sought reinstatement and to block the investigation.
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The payment to the outgoing chief executive is about half the €968,000 he stood to receive under a September mediation deal with the board. That deal was subsequently rejected by Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien.
The Minister said in a statement: “The board was aware of my dissatisfaction with the conciliated quantum and I understand today’s settlement quantum is considerably less.”
The settlement does not include Jacobs’s legal costs, which will be paid separately by DAA. Total legal costs racked up by both sides in the affair now exceed €1 million.
However, the Minister’s spokeswoman had no comment when asked whether he had ordered any report from DAA on the legal bills.
Jacobs was in the Round Hall of the Four Courts on Thursday morning when Judge Marguerite Bolger was told of “very recent developments” that led to a settlement minutes before the case was due to be heard.
DAA barrister Mairéad McKenna said she was pleased to say the matter was fully resolved on “mutually agreeable” terms under which Jacobs will “voluntarily step down”.
The settlement came one year and one day after the first of two formal complaints, known as protected disclosures, about Jacobs’s behaviour and a business matter. Such complaints were not upheld after a barrister’s investigation.
However, the Minister was later told of board concern about Jacobs’s response to the protected disclosure process and concern about the emergence of other issues separate to those raised in the formal complaints.
The board ultimately concluded Jacobs was unsuitable to continue in his post, setting in motion mediation talks in August under the chairmanship of industrial relations troubleshooter Kieran Mulvey.
It was the Mulvey talks that led to the €968,000 deal rejected by O’Brien. Although Jacobs was to leave his DAA post on January 3rd under that arrangement, he would have remained on the company payroll until March.
“The chairperson has kept me and my officials fully informed throughout this process,” the Minister said. “While as shareholder I was not, in the legal circumstances, required to approve the settlement, the board did keep my officials apprised of developments.”
Jacobs said he was pleased the dispute has been resolved and an agreement reached: “I am immensely proud of the outstanding performance DAA achieved in my time as CEO, with record operational, commercial and financial results.”
McKenna told court the parties acknowledged the contribution made by DAA’s management team and staff to the operation and commercial success of the company, as well as the positive impact DAA has on the Irish economy.
