FAS chief executive John Lynch dished out a dose of ISME's own medicine at the small firms lobby group's annual conference in Killarney last week. He berated the organisation for making inaccurate and sometimes misleading statements.

He cited several occasions when the organisation made comments about FAS and took them to task in no uncertain manner. ISME members were unperturbed.

So was Mr Lynch. To show there were no hard feelings he filled in at short notice as an after-dinner speaker when Sunday Business Post editor Damien Kiberd failed to make it.

By all accounts, he proved a witty and entertaining substitute.