Pay levels to the IFA’s director general and president will forever be an emotive issue following the events in 2015.

Eddie Downey is probably wondering if people will notice that Tim Cullinan’s €140,000 annual remuneration (a word that for a short while was as common on farmers’ lips as weather or prices) is only €7,000 a year short of the figure he was on, that was so criticised and led in part to his decision to resign.

That said, there are some differences. The main one is that the remuneration for the external roles Cullinan holds on the boards of FBD and Bord Bia is now paid directly to the IFA, rather than to the sitting president. This nearly halves the cost of the president to the association.

But why a pay rise now? Well, director Damian McDonald’s five-year contract was up, and it was either renew or look for a replacement. The decision to reappoint McDonald was essentially the president’s, pending the ratification of council on his recommendation.

Increasing his pay, unchanged since 2016, fell to the remuneration committee – treasurer Martin Stapleton and the four regional chairs; Pat Murphy, Harold Kingston, Francie Gorman and Frank Brady, and external director, ifac’s Declan McEvoy.

The idea was to restore parity in wages with the Department of Agriculture’s secretary general.

McDonald’s pension is funded by defined contributions, a huge shift from the defined benefit pensions of his predecessors. The committee then decided to grant Cullinan and deputy president Brian Rushe pro-rata increases.

How it plays with members remains to be seen. It could have been worse; their remuneration could have been indexed against fertiliser prices.