Top names to join board of Telecom

The new board of Telecom Eireann will be announced next Tuesday as the Government prepares to float 35 per cent of the company in a £1 billion sell-off. One of the appointments is expected to be a new senior company executive, who will join chief executive Mr Alfie Kane on the board. The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, who asked five non-executive board members if they would be prepared to relinquish their posts, said yesterday that she would not remove the one member who declined. He is Mr Paul Mackay, a Progressive Democrats trustee.

Ms O'Rourke said she would not dismiss Mr Mackay. "I do not intend to dismiss people; it is not my style," she said in an RTE radio interview.

Ms O`Rourke has already appointed Mr Brian Thompson, former vice-chairman of US telecoms group Qwest, as chairman. It is understood that former EU commissioner and finance minister, Mr Ray MacSharry, will also be joining the board. He is a businessman in his own right and is a member of a number of boards including Bank of Ireland, Jefferson Smurfit Group, Ryanair, Green Property and London City Airport.

The unions will be represented by Mr Dick Spring, former Labour leader, tanaiste and minister for foreign affairs. The workers now own 14.9 per cent of Telecom through an employee share option programme and Mr Spring will represent these interests. Under the 1983 Telecommunications Act, there was a ban on sitting deputies taking up board appointments on semi-state boards. However, a Department of Public Enterprise spokesman said that this ban would be removed under the Telecommunications Amendment Act, currently going through the Oireachtas. It is expected that Ms O'Rourke will announce the appointment on Tuesday of a major Irish business figure with experience of bringing companies to the international market. The decision to beef up the Telecom board was taken on the recommendation of the Government's advisers on the flotation - AIB Capital Markets and Merrill Lynch.