BRIAN Kavanagh says he did not “engineer” the situation which saw him reappointed for a third term as chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland, and nor did he ever consider exploring whether or not he was entitled to a contract of indefinite duration.

Kavanagh was in Leinster House this week where he spent three hours answering questions from the Joint Committee on Agriculture.

Topics covered included media rights, the Foal Levy and Brexit, but proceedings were dominated by questions concerning Kavanagh’s reappointment last summer. According to Government guidelines the chief executive of semi-state bodies should serve no more than one seven-year term. Kavanagh has held the position since 2001 and began a third five-year term last September.

Asked by the Committee to explain why the guidelines were not followed, Kavanagh said: “When I was reappointed after a public competition in 2009 it was on the basis that I would be allowed compete again [at the end of that term] or go to another position, but in 2011 that permission was sought to be removed.

“I had signed the contract in the hope this issue would be resolved. It was the chairman’s preference to first establish the Department’s position. If the instruction had come back that there was a need for open competition that would not have bothered me. I don’t believe the chairman or I engineered the situation. We acted with the best of intentions.”

Kavanagh said he was aware the HRI board had legal advice which suggested that he was entitled to a contract of indefinite duration because of how his reappointment had been handled. “As I understand it, I would have had to go down the legal route with that, and that was not something I was minded to do. I wouldn’t have any intention of staying where I wasn’t wanted.”

He confirmed to the Committee that he would be leaving his post at the end of the current contract. “I have given a written commitment that I won’t seek another contract,” he said.

“We have put in place a new management structure designed to bring new blood and thinking into the organisation.”

On the possibility of receiving a “golden handshake” at the end of his term, Kavanagh said he had asked HRI’s remuneration committee “what would happen at the end of my contract, with my pension and in recognition of my service. They said it was inappropriate to consider that now – it was for down the line.”