Irish Times deny exaggerating losses

CLAIMS by a former Irish Times journalist that the company exaggerated losses in order to achieve staff cut-backs has been strongly rejected by management.

Maeve Donovan, Irish Times managing director, said former security correspondent Jim Cusack had ‘seriously misrepresented the situation’ during an interview on RTE radio with Marion Finucane yesterday.

During the interview, Mr Cusack, who left after taking a redundancy package last Friday, said: “I don’t think it is true that they (the Irish Times) have encountered great losses. If you just look at its advertising revenue and its circulation, you’ll see it is as financially secure as ever it was and I think it will go on to huge profitability very shortly.”