Can Bord na Mona affair teach a valuable lesson?

THE Bord na Mona affair has its cronies. One is that there are four for five senior executives in the organisation recruited by Eddie O'Connor who are paid substantially more in basic salary and bonuses than the managing director.

It all makes a bit of a farce of the Gleeson guidelines for pay and perks in the state sector. Already the chief executives of Telecom Eireann and Aer Lingus are on contracts which greatly exceed the guidelines, while clearly recruitment at senior management level in almost all state companies is now done on contract terms, which, so the argument goes, allows talent to be attracted from the private sector. It is a difficult agenda for Michael Buckley of AIB, the man charged with chairing the committee which is producing the follow up report to Gleeson.