Eircom's new finance director Peter Lynch has been getting some poor press recently over his wholesale rationalisation of the company's multimedia businesses.

Still it is difficult to feel too sorry for the man in the light of details of his pay which emerged this week in documents on the proposed demerger of Eircell and its subsequent sale to British mobile giant Vodafone.

On top of a basic annual salary of #279,400 (£220,045) for the current year, Mr Lynch has been guaranteed a bonus of about #70,000 and it could even be double that. Fair enough, one might say, given the thankless job he has in getting the slimmed company ready for the future either as an independent entity or, more likely, as part of the Denis O'Brien or Dermot Desmond empires.

However, in addition, he stands to receive 12 months salary should he resign following the takeover of the company after the end of this year and even more if control moves elsewhere before then!