The chief financial officer of the Irish Greyhound Board (IGB) is to leave the company after a long-running dispute following a settlement be­l­ieved to be just under €500,000.

Michael Foley has been suspended on full pay of €110,000 for the past year after he was charged with "insubordination" by the IGB's chief executive Adrian Neilan.

Since the suspension, the company has engaged in a long drawn out disciplinary process that included a five-month investigation into the alleged "insubordination".

Foley went to the High Court on at least two occasions to object to the process to which he was being subjected. On one occasion he objected to the appointment of an independent arbitrator on the basis that the individual had tendered for a contract with the IGB and could not therefore be seen to be independent.

The board of the greyhound body was kept in the dark about the proceedings. This was done on the basis that in the event of Foley being dismissed, his contract allowed him to appeal to the board as a last resort.

The chairman of the board, Dick O'Sullivan, confirmed to the Sunday Tribune that the board could not have access to the details of the affair on this basis.

The exact nature of the charges against Foley were never made clear. After the resignation of a previous chief executive, Foley acted as CEO until the appointment of Neilan in 2007. According to sources in the industry, Foley was regarded as a highly competent administrator, but tensions between he and Neilan were apparent. Foley was understood to be close to a previous chairman, Paschal Taggart, who resigned from the board in 2006, while Neilan would be regarded as being close to Taggart's successor, O'Sullivan.

The fall-out from the suspension resulted in major legal fees accruing to both the company and Foley with the two sides attending the industrial relations mechanisms and the courts on a number of occasions.

Through that time, the IGB functioned without a chief financial officer as it planned for a major new headquarters and stadium in Limerick, costing €22m. The plans for the new development are still on course despite the economic recession and an expected major reduction in the "horse and dog" fund in next month's budget.

Foley's suspension for "insubordination" and the settlement agreed last week is expected to cost the company around €750,000, including legal fees.

As part of the settlement, Foley resigned his position as chief financial officer.