Irish Press Annual Report

Sir, - The report by Barry O'Keeffe (The Irish Times, October 14th) on the annual report of Irish Press Plc is mistaken in its…

Sir, - The report by Barry O'Keeffe (The Irish Times, October 14th) on the annual report of Irish Press Plc is mistaken in its implications and requires correction in two respects.Your headline inaccurately implied a link between payments to individuals and the sale of the Irish Press titles. The report itself makes it clear that these payments were related to the efforts made to relaunch the titles.Since no years were specifically mentioned there is confusion as to which is "this year" and which is "last year". This may have led to the misconception about management and other payments. The years are the financial years ended March 31st, 1997 and 1996. In 1995 management payments were made by Irish Press Newspapers Limited (IPN), now in liquidation. If strict comparison were to be made these payments would be added to the £144,000, eliminating the apparent increase to £212,000.However, as reported previously to our shareholders and following liquidation, the financial statements of IPN were not consolidated in our group financial statements for the periods ended March 31st, 1995 and 1996. - Yours, etc.,Eamon De Valera,Managing Director,Irish Press plc,Merrion Square,Dublin 2.