Since his departure from the office of Taoiseach in November 1994, Mr Albert Reynolds has been active as a director of a number of companies. However, it is not clear how lucrative these activities have been. Asked which business involvement was currently his most profitable, Mr Reynolds declined to answer, saying that was a private matter.

He lives in a large house on Ailesbury Road, Dublin. He said he hopes that in time Life Energy Technology Holdings will become his biggest earner.

1. Jefferson Smurfit Group: The Jefferson Smurfit group was the first company quoted on the Irish Stock Exchange to invite Mr Albert Reynolds to join its board after he left the office of Taoiseach.

Mr Reynolds was invited to join the board by Dr Michael Smurfit in February 1996. As a non-executive director, he received remuneration of approximately €50,000 per year. After the company was taken private by Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn earlier this year, Mr Reynolds resigned from the board along with 10 others.

2. Bula Resources: Mr Reynolds took on the position of chairman of Bula Resources plc in March 1999. He got a salary of approximately €63,000 per year and share options, whereby he could buy up to 87.5 million Bula shares at €1.27 each. He also had a deal whereby he would receive a 3.75 share in an oil development in Iraq.

However, despite occasional bursts of excitement that led to significant rises in the Bula share price, the company never managed to land a profitable deal. It concentrated on Iraq, Libya and Bahrain, spending money but not making any. By June 2002 it had gone through its third managing director in two years. In April the company's shares were suspended.

At the Bula annual general meeting held in the Radisson Hotel, Dublin, on Monday, Mr Reynolds did not put a motion for his re-election to the floor.

3. ATI (In Flight) Ltd: This Dublin-based aircraft credit company had plans to float on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange in August 1999. Mr Reynolds was appointed chairman of the company in June 1999 and was to receive a fee of €57,000 for 12 days' work per year. Additional days were to be paid at a rate of €1,300 per day.

The company wished to provide a telecommunications network for real-time credit card validation and other e-commerce purposes, to passengers on commercial aircraft.

It was to place 11 million €1 shares on the Luxembourg exchange but the float was pulled, partly because of the company's connections with Mr Derek Kelly, who had operated as an "introducer" and consultant for ATI but who had been disqualified some years earlier by the High Court in London from operating as a director. Mr Kelly also had a 9.85 stake in the float.

Publicity surrounding this is thought to have put some people off investing in the company. Mr Reynolds had no knowledge of Mr Kelly's earlier difficulties and was dismayed when the media reports appeared.

The flotation would have seen Mr Reynolds receive an option on 250,000 shares at €1 per share. That deal fell when the float collapsed. Mr Reynolds had received no payment at all from the company at the time the flotation collapsed. The company was wound up in December 2001, following a petition from Mr Kelly, a creditor of the company.

4. E-Pawn Inc: In June 2000, the quoted Irish recruitment group Marlborough International broke off takeover talks with a US auctioneering website, E-Pawn.com, after the US company had its shares suspended by the Securities and Exchange Commission and its chief executive, Mr Eli Liebowitz, was arrested for alleged securities fraud.

Mr Reynolds was a director of the Florida-based company and had been instrumental in introducing the company to Marlborough. When he was appointed to the board in February 2000, Mr Liebowitz said: "Mr Reynolds brings a tremendous amount of business savvy to the table and will assist E-Pawn in developing strategies in emerging markets around the world."

Both Mr Reynolds and Marlborough were unaware there were any question marks over the US company at the time the talks between the two companies were initiated. The investment fraud involving E-Pawn was discovered in the course of a large FBI investigation into the infiltration of Wall Street by organised crime.

Mr Reynolds was also involved with another US internet company, Celex Inc, from which he has since resigned. Celex and E-Pawn had the same president, Mr Doug Forde.

5. Others: Mr Reynolds is also a director of AON McDonagh Boland, an Irish insurance firm, the Cunningham Group, an Irish property development company and a Belgian pharmaceutical company, Celestial Health. He is no longer a shareholder in C&D Foods, the successful pet food company that he founded early in his career. He is on the trustee board of the American Cancer Society and the UN trustee board for AIDS, which aims to raise $10 billion.