Sir Anthony's hospitality remains crystal clear: We'd understand if Sir Anthony O'Reilly was too preoccupied with yet another rights issue at Waterford Wedgwood to entertain guests.
But entertain he did last week, even as Waterford's best-known firm went deep into the red with annual losses of €189 million.
This we know thanks to the Washington Post, whose business columnist Steven Pearlstein wrote a piece on Wednesday titled Ireland challenged to build on success. Pearlstein dropped in to see the knight. "Anthony O'Reilly, the former chief executive of Heinz, is not only one of Ireland's richest citizens, but also one of its best raconteurs," he wrote.
"Last week, he regaled me with the story of his butler, Martin, who, after pouring him a cup of tea one recent afternoon, asked his famous boss for his view on 'Bulgarian property'. Turns out Martin had invested in not one, but three condominium apartments with a view of the Black Sea, after taking a holiday at a new Bulgarian resort." Alas, Pearlstein didn't say whether O'Reilly was in favour of the butler's Black Sea foray. Whatever about the investment, we trust the view is appealing.
Airport authority's costs keep on soaring
It's been a tough few months for the top brass at the Dublin Airport Authority. First they had to extend the size of Terminal 2, then planning permission given for their new runway was appealed to An Bórd Pleanala and now the aviation regulator has once again failed to grant the company its main demand of a €7.50 passenger charge.
But during Oireachtas proceedings this week, Dublin North TD Jim Glennon wondered why the company was suffering any problems at all? He said the authority was hiring so many expensive consultants that he wondered whether the DAA was being run by Gary McGann and Declan Collier, or in fact the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
O'Reilly's family affairs
They start them young in the O'Reilly clan. Two grandchildren of Sir Anthony were among those in attendance at the annual general meeting of Irish exploration minnow Providence Resources this week.
Tony O'Reilly jnr, father of the three and chief executive of Providence, clearly decided it is never too young to blood budding business leaders in the dark arts of corporate manoeuvring. Daughter Grey and son Tony listened as Tony jnr spoke of 2006 as a year of transition and outlined a buoyant outlook for the company to a large turnout.
As for the troublesome business of keeping them off the podium for the business end of the meeting, O'Reilly was able to call on none other than one of the bluebloods of the art of spin - Murrays PR Consultants. Quite how the exercise will appear in their next bill will be interesting.
Socialists' own goal
The prospects for socialist unity in the Dáil were destroyed by hostility between Trotskyite Joe Higgins and the great socialist helmsman himself, Bertie Ahern. But saddened as we are by ideological fracture in the Dáil, Current Account takes comfort from the fact that if the World Cup finalists go at each other as hard as comrades Ahern and Higgins, it's going to be a great final.
