Former National Transport Authority chief underpaid over several years

The former head of the National Transport Authority (NTA) was underpaid by about €50,000 in total over several years, a note in the agency’s accounts indicates.The shortfall was subsequently rectified in 2024 with the agreement of the Department of Transport; it has emerged in results for last year filed recently.The annual financial statement for last year says that Anne Graham retired as chief executive of the authority on December 15th, 2024. “A multiannual discrepancy accumulating to €55,033 concerning the then chief executive remuneration scale was identified and rectified with the approval of the Department of Transport in 2024,” the report states.READ MOREGraham originally came to the authority in 2019. Previously, she had been on secondment from Dublin City Council. The agency’s accounts for 2019 show she received €188,000 in that year, comprising €111,000 in basic pay and €77,000 in allowances.It is understood that several years later the underpayment was identified and this was subsequently addressed with the agreement of the parent department.In a statement to The Irish Times, the authority said: “A discrepancy was identified in relation to the pay scale applied to the former chief executive’s appointment, specifically regarding the personal pension contribution (PPC) and non-personal pension contribution salary scales.“The Department of Transport reviewed the appointment and subsequently approved an amendment to the PPC scale, which was then approved by the National Transport Authority board.“The payment referenced relates to arrears due to the former CEO to align her remuneration with the approved rate. The discrepancy relates to the period from December 2019 onwards.” Following Graham’s retirement in late 2024, Hugh Creegan was appointed interim chief executive of the organisation until November 24th, 2025. In late November 2025, Anne Shaw, the former executive director of Transport for West Midlands in Britain, was appointed as chief executive of the NTA.