Sir, - As one of the large number of ordinary people who bought a little bit of Eircom last year, I would like to express my absolute disgust at the telephone number sums being awarded to directors.
Granted Eircom has had a moderately profitable year, but surely in a booming economy this is the very least we could have expected. Does the performance justify payment of £1.7 million to two executives? Or an incredible £365,000 to 10 non-executive directors? Eircom will get the answers on September 13th.
The board will no doubt claim that the steady fall in the value of my small stake was beyond their control. What was within their control though was to keep bonuses to the senior executives small as a gesture of restraint and solidarity with the suffering shareholders. Perhaps I'm naive, but I would have thought that £250,000 - £300,000 a year with perks to match would be enough to attract top calibre people. - Yours, etc.,
John Power, Bettystown, Co Meath.