Meet Dr Michael Smurfit, the six million euro man. Boss of a big box firm, nothing in this hardy world can keep him down. Not the jeers of shareholders wagging fingers in anger about his company's poor show on the stock exchange. Not Senator Shane Ross, styling himself the small man's champion, as he did at Eircom. Even the cheeky fellow who wryly described Dr Smurfit's exclusive golf retreat in Co Kildare as "our club" posed no threat at all. Everyone knows the K-Club is Dr Smurfit's own.
The great man was not one to become bogged down in trivia. He held court at yesterday's annual shareholders' meeting recounting tales of his "decade of achievement".
Jefferson Smurfit was regarded as a global industry leader, he said. No one was more disappointed at the stock market's lack of interest than he was. Shareholders refused to feel his pain. They were preoccupied with their own losses.
Dr Smurfit soldiered on. A busy, cultured man, resident in Monaco for tax purposes, he still finds time to "do a lot of good things for Ireland".
But the old ground was still lacking. "This is a very small country with a very small pool of talented board members available," he said when asked why some of his directors also sat on the board of Bank of Ireland.
Stoically, the directors looked on, sipping their fizzy water. They included the former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, and a former minister for finance, Mr Ray MacSharry. Mr MacSharry, who had faced a similar grilling from shareholders as chairman of Eircom, was called on to defend Dr Smurfit's pay and bonus package, worth €6.6 million last year. This he did with customary aplomb, praising Dr Smurfit's long experience and all-round mastery of the cardboard box world.
When it was all over, Dr Smurfit was whisked away before finding time to answer journalists' questions about the company's alleged links with a £150,000 payment to Mr Michael Lowry.
Free with one bound, as it were. Another day, another euro. That's more than €18,000 for Dr Smurfit at last year's rate - €18,000 every day of the year.
