The recently departed head of a U.S. charity that raises money for causes and organizations in Ireland was paid some $800,000 last year, reports The Irish Times.

Kingsley Aikins, who stepped down as chief executive of the American Ireland Fund in January, earned $320,000 in salary in 2009. After he relocated from the charity’s New York headquarters to Dublin in 2005, he also received about $480,000 in housing allowances and tax-equalization payments.

Mr. Aikins remains a consultant to the fund under a new deal that pays him a flat fee of about $325,000, slightly higher than the salary of the new chief executive, Kieran McLoughlin.

The fund, which draws on a network of wealthy Irish-American donors, raised about $15-million in 2008 for education, community-development, and reconciliation initiatives in Ireland and Northern Ireland.