Gloves off in Coilte's fight for bonuses

THROUGHOUT the economic crisis, the board of one of the State’s largest commercial companies was doggedly scrapping with its shareholder — the minister for agriculture.

The fight was over a single point of principle. The board of Coillte believed it had a moral obligation to pay its former chief executive anything up to €390,000 in backdated annual bonuses.

But successive ministers, Brendan Smith and Simon Coveney, stood their ground. They said there was a clear policy not to pay performance awards.