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Five members of the Senior Management Team of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council earned a salary of over £100,000 in 2024/2025!
Details were revealed by the TaxPayers’ Alliance which, since 2007 has compiled an annual Town Hall Rich List of local authority employees receiving over £100,000 in total remuneration.
Top of the pay scale is CEO Marie Ward on a salary of £163,625 (£137,500 with £26,125 *pension contribution). Next is Conor Mallon, Director of Enterprise, Regeneration and Tourism and Josephine Kelly, Director of Corporate Services who received £121,975 (£102,500 with £19,475 pension contribution)
Sinead Murphy, Director of Sustainability and Environment and Andrew Patterson, Director of Active and Healthy Communities received £121,025 (£97,500 with £18,525 pension contribution).
Marie Ward's salary puts her joint second highest in the wage stakes in NI along with Roger Wilson CEO of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council, while top of the list in the was John Walsh, chief executive of Belfast City Council, who received £181,475.
Surprisingly there are 921 other individuals in councils throughout the UK who earn more that the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council CEO with the top pay packet going to an un-named person from Staffordshire Council receiving a mouth watering £457,500! A total of 3906 council employees throughout the UK earned over £100,000.
Northern Ireland had 59 council employees who received at least £100,000 in 2024-25, which is 8 more than the previous year.
- Pensions are schemes that allow employees to defer some of their income until they retire. The list includes costs incurred by a council, for an employee. Pension payments represent a portion of the total cost incurred by the taxpayer. Pensions are part of the financial benefit enjoyed by employees for work done and part of the cost borne by employers, which is why council accounts include them.
Read the full report at taxpayersalliance.com
