. . . and some little things

FRESH FROM his appearance alongside Taoiseach Enda Kenny as he rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, and his involvement on the recent trade mission to China, publisher and events organiser Ian Hyland is now turning his attention towards celebrating the IFSC’s 25th birthday.

Business & Finance and Ireland Inc, both run by Hyland, are co-producing an IFSC 25 publication “honouring this unique initiative which elevated Ireland as a global hub for financial services”.

The anniversary will also be acknowledged at this year’s Business & Finance Awards, where tax exile Dermot Desmond will be honoured for his “outstanding contribution to Ireland”.

Having had his fingers burnt by standing beside Denis O’Brien in New York, it will be interesting to see if the Taoiseach is on the guest list for Hyland’s awards, given Desmond’s involvement with the Moriarty tribunal as a key shareholder alongside O’Brien at Esat when it won the second mobile licence.

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AER LINGUS’S annual report last week revealed the generous salary paid to chief executive Christoph Mueller – €1.24 million – and his various share options. He also got to keep a fee of €7,965 which he earned as a board member of Tourism Ireland last year.

The report states that the German has agreed to a voluntary freeze of his salary at €475,000, a sum agreed in 2009 when he was appointed.

“The remuneration committee intends to introduce arrangements in order to ensure the retention of the services of the chief executive officer,” the annual report adds, cryptically.

Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until this time next year to find out what these are.