Politicians have a first-class ticket to ride corporate train

If Mary Harney is contemplating life beyond politics amid dire predictions for the future of the Progressive Democrats, she can take heart at the ease with which other high-profile politicians have slipped into the corporate sphere.

Foremost among them is the former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds. Apart from a hiccup last week with E-Pawn - in the shape of a US grand jury investigation into the company to which he is a consultant - Mr Reynolds's business career has blossomed since leaving office at the end of 1994.

Most recently he has become involved in a number of US technology ventures. He is chairman of Life Energy Corporation, a joint venture with the Colorado-based Nathaniel Energy Corporation.

It was glad to get him. "Mr Reynolds's extensive international experience in politics and business, along with being recognised as an international statesman, strengthens the company's development in Ireland and the European Community," crowed Nathaniel last March.

And why wouldn't it be pleased to get him? After all, as finance minister between 1988 and 1992, Mr Reynolds successfully rebuilt the Irish financial markets, Nathaniel Energy pointed out. The Longford deputy also found the time to "revolutionise the telecommunication system" during his tenures as minister for transport and minister for post and telegraphs.

Life Energy develops and builds thermal combustors which can burn municipal waste and produce saleable electric power. Ireland's local authorities are an obvious market and Mr Reynolds an obvious salesman. The company demonstrated the product at the General Council of County Councillors earlier this year and Mr Reynolds has given interviews on the subject from, among other places, the RTE studio in the Dail.

Mr Reynolds's other technology interests extend to two Florida-based companies, one of which has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons.

The former Taoiseach is chairman of the European advisory board of E-Pawn a quoted e-commerce portal. Trading in the company's shares was suspended after it was announced last week that it was the subject of a federal investigation into Mafia manipulation of the stock market. Two of the company's executives have since left.

Mr Reynolds also advises another Florida company called CeleXx, which shares a senior director with E-Pawn. His role at CeleXx is to "assist the board of directors and management in developing and implementing strategies aimed at delivering CeleXx IT and computer telephone solutions to the European Community and other foreign markets".

Mr Doug Forde, who is chairman of E-Pawn, is also the president of CeleXx. He was pleased to have hired Mr Reynolds. "It was, in great part, prime minister Reynolds's visionary leadership, marketing experience and savvy that helped launch the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin," he pointed out when he welcomed the TD aboard. Mr Reynolds also lobbies in Europe for US business. He is the European national healthcare system consultant for Coronado Industries, a US healthcare company. He has organised access to the Commission for the company, which is seeking European approval for a machine that treats glaucoma.

In March last year, Mr Reynolds became chairman of Bula Resources, the troubled oil company quoted in Dublin. The former Taoiseach's contacts in Libya and Iraq would significantly enhance Bula's position, said the group. To date there has been little tangible progress reported but Mr Reynolds has made considerable paper profits - in the region of £5.5 million (€7 million) - on his options over 87.5 million Bula shares which have appreciated on the back of market speculation. Outside of Bula and his family pet food business, Mr Reynolds is perhaps best known in Irish business circles as chairman of Inflight ATI, a Dublin-based company which develops aircraft financial services facilities.

The company was planning to float on the Luxembourg stock exchange last August but the offering was called off for a number of reasons. One of which was the revelation that a consultant to the company - who would have held a 9.85 per cent stake after the float - had been barred from acting as a director by the High Court in London.

The consultant in question, Mr Derek Kelly, had links to Airtel ATN, a Dublin software company that that was going to allow Inflight use its technology. The chairman of Airtel was none other than Mr Dick Spring, the former Labour leader and Mr Reynolds's one-time partner in government and subsequently his nemesis.

The deal was called off, but not before a prospectus was published showing that Mr Reynolds was to be paid €57,000 for his time - in the region of 12 board meetings year. He would also have received options over 250,000 shares at the introductory price of €1 a share.

Airtel, which is listed on the London OFEX, is not Mr Spring's only venture into the high-tech sector. He is a member of the international advisory board of European Internet Capital (EIC), an e-commerce investment vehicle that plans to float in London later this year.

The former Tanaiste has options over 48,780 shares at 41.67p. The company is expected to float at around £1 per share and raise £40 million to invest in business to business e-commerce.

Mr Spring will help source investments and "use his experience in politics and European affairs to advise the companies in which EIC has an interest", according to Mr Nick Garrett of Casenove & Co, the London bank which is advising EIC.

The Kerry North TD also sits on the board of Eircom, where he represents the Employee Share Ownership Trust. Within weeks of the company listing on the Dublin, London and New York stock markets last summer, the directors of Eircom voted themselves a 500 per cent pay rise. Mr Spring's fees rose from in the region of £7,000 a year to £35,000. Mr Ray MacSharry, the former finance minister and European Commissioner, earns £100,000 a year as chairman.

Mr Spring also acts as international counsel to Mintz Levin, the Boston law firm.

Both Mr Spring and Mr Reynolds are Dail deputies and entitled to a salary of more than £35,000 a year and can claim expenses that average £25,000. Neither man spends much time in the Dail chamber. Mr Reynolds has indicated that he will not be standing for re-election next time out but Mr Spring said last November that he would contest the next election.

As well as their salaries, the two men are entitled to ministerial pensions. According to the most recent figures, Mr Reynolds got the most of any former Taoiseach - £44,103 per annum - while Mr Spring received £17,843. Mr MacSharry gets a pension of £16,250.

Mr David Andrews, who succeeded Mr Spring as foreign minister, has not been slow to turn his exposure on the world stage into a lucrative directorship.

Within a month of his exit from Iveagh House, the Dun Laoghaire TD had joined the board of Invu, a British software company seeking a US stock market listing. Invu develops software that allows organisations to manage and access data from a number of sources and make it securely available to other users through the Internet.

Mr Andrews, a senior counsel, was hired because "of his seminal role in the peace process" according to Mr David Morgan, the chief executive officer of Invu.

The former minister for foreign affairs has been granted share options that will be worth a significant sum, says Mr Morgan.

A former chairman of the Council of Europe, Mr Andrews has twice addressed the UN General Assembly in New York.

Mr Morgan does give some insight into the real value to a small technology company of having a high profile Irish politician closely associated with it. "David Andrews epitomises integrity and credibility, which are the type of qualities we want people to associate with our company," explains Mr Morgan.