Tim Lucey leaving Cork County Council to take top job at Greyhound Racing Ireland
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The chief executive of Cork County Council is to leave his post to take up a new role as head of Greyhound Racing Ireland.
Tim Lucey, who had been with the local authority for nine years, told council members on Friday that he had been offered the post of chief executive with the greyhound body and would be taking up the role “later this year”.
His final day with the county council will be September 29. He will take up his new role with GRI in November.
Mr Lucey wrote to councillors on Friday morning to say that while GRI would be issuing a press release regarding the appointment later, he wanted them “to hear it at first from myself”.
“I will over the next number of weeks be making the necessary arrangements for this transition,” he wrote.
“In the meantime and until my departure, I look forward to continuing my work with you all in this organisation that I am incredibly proud of,” he said.
The position of CEO at GRI had been vacant since August of last year when Dearbhla O’Brien left the post suddenly after just eight months in the role, succeeded on an interim basis by John Tuohey.
Mr Tuohey welcomed the appointment, saying that GRI “will greatly benefit from Tim’s wealth of experience in corporate and financial governance and his management of Ireland’s largest local authority by area”.
“On behalf of staff, I want to congratulate Tim and I look forward to him taking up his new position this November,” he said in a statement.
The job carried a salary of €151,000 per annum together with pension contributions in 2020.
Last November GRI lobbied agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue for an enhanced package to enable it to attract a new permanent chief executive.
The body said it would be satisfied with a salary of €160,000, together with a company car entitlement and a defined contribution pension equivalent to €25% of salary per year.
Mr Lucey, a qualified accountant, previously held roles with the former Southern Health Board and Skibbereen Urban District Council, before he rose through the ranks of Cork County Council, from a clerical assistant in 1982, to ultimately lead the entire organisation.
During his time with Cork County Council, Mr Lucey served as the council's chief accountant playing a prominent role in overseeing the introduction of the authority's new financial management systems.
He later served as the council's Director of Corporate Affairs, with overall responsibility for communications, corporate planning and legal services, and in 2006 he was appointed divisional manager for the northern division with the responsibility for overseeing the entire range of council services including housing, roads, water, planning and economic development.
In 2010, the Bandon native left that role following his appointment as Cork city manager, where he oversaw an annual budget of €200m and had overall responsibility for the local authority's 1,400 staff. In 2014, he was announced as the new chief executive of Cork County Council, returning to lead the organisation where he began his career.