Pensioners should phone their fund managers and demand to know how the managers will vote at tomorrow's Smurfit a.g.m. and the reason for their decision, Senator Joe O'Toole (Ind) told the Seanad yesterday. He was speaking on an Independent members' motion congratulating the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, for the measures she had taken in the interest of small shareholders to bring more transparency to company accounts, and particularly her insistence that directors reveal their individual salaries.
The motion also urged further measures to ensure that investment and pension fund managers consulted with their contributors and customers before supporting measures which enriched directors at the expense of small shareholders.
Mr O'Toole said there should be statutory powers to require the audit committees of companies to explain to shareholders the amount of individual directors' annual remuneration and the reasons for it.
The relationship between fund managers and companies should also be regulated and there should be statutory authority for the Irish Association of Investment Managers (IAIM) to have its recommendations implemented. Steps should be taken to ensure that ordinary investors had access to company information at the same time as fund managers.
Senator Shane Ross (Ind) said the action of the Tanaiste had led to the revelation that the chief executive and chairman of one Irish public company, the Jefferson Smurfit Group, was receiving €6.5 million as a package . . . an extraordinary amount of money.
Smurfit shares had underperformed in relation to the Irish market over the last five years when the Smurfit family and the company directors were milking this company of millions, Mr Ross said.
But this time we had seen something quite exceptional. Last week, Aberdeen Asset Management, a fund manager, had declared that it was going to vote against such exorbitant payments at the Smurfit a.g.m. And one of the stalwarts of the investment management game in Ireland, the Irish Life Investment Managers, had declared it was going to vote against the re-election of five Smurfit directors.
