O'Rourke loses her `A' team

Picture, if you will, a high-profile minister who asks the board of a major State company to step down to allow her to appoint a team of heavy-hitters to lead that company towards privatisation only to see two of that dreamteam abandon ship within months. No wonder Mary O'Rourke is embarrassed, not to say downright annoyed.

In the minefield that is the Department of Public Enterprise, she must have thought she had sidestepped potential problems in the run-up to Telecom Eireann's flotation when she persuaded most of the previous board to stand down and Brian Thompson, a US telecoms executive with a glittering CV, to take over as chairman. Unfortunately, she failed to handcuff him to his post and when he accepted an offer to lead a US telecoms firm with a small Irish presence, GTS, her officials deemed the two positions incompatible.

She then compounded the problem by precipitately naming former minister and EU commissioner Ray MacSharry to the post, overlooking Mr Thomspon's predecessor, Ron Bolger, who remained on the board and has made himself something of an authority on initial public share offerings such as Telecom is undertaking. Snubbed for the second time in a matter of months, he, too, has left the board.

Despite the prompt appointments of US telecoms executive, Mr William Ferguson to the board and of Mr Malcolm Fallen, formerly of BT, as chief financial officer, Ms O'Rourke is likely to spend some time paying the political price of her eulogising of an alltoo brief appointment.