Competition chief to take up British post

THE chairman of Ireland’s competition watchdog is to quit after being offered the €370,000 top job at its British equivalent.

John Fingleton said yesterday that he would step down at the Competition Authority in October after five years in charge. The news came just two months after he was appointed for a second five-year term by the Government. The job commands a salary of approximately €137,000.

Dr Fingleton, a former economics lecturer at Dublin's Trinity College, beat off the challenge of 36 other applicants to take over at Britain's Office of Fair Trading (OFT).