If the new national pay agreement, offering pay increases of 15 per cent (15.75 per cent cumulative) over 33 months, gets the green light, then managers' salaries are likely to grow at a faster percentage rate, so they will gain a bigger slice of the available resources. That is clear from the last pay agreement, Partnership 2000. But the main beneficiaries from the booming economy are likely to be executive directors who, in the past, have notched up substantial gains in their basic salaries. And that will be on top of bonuses, incentives, and share option schemes.

During the period of the last agreement workers gained 2 per cent a year more on average, through local bargaining, than the rates (around 3 per cent per annum, over a period of a little more than three years) provided for in the national agreement. Managers averaged 3 per cent a year extra, according to the ESRI. This is also clear from the most recent Irish Management Institute salary survey which showed salaries rising by an average of 6 per cent in the 12 months to April 1999. However, that survey did not cover executive directors' salaries. Publicly quoted companies, after much pressure from the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, will be forced by the Irish Stock Exchange, to reveal individual directors' remuneration, in the annual reports, from 2000. However, apart from the exceptions, such as Adare and Irish Life & Permanent, Irish companies have only given aggregate figures. Nevertheless, a look at a random selection of the last published annual reports is revealing. All figures are averages, for one year, and do not include bonuses, and other incentives.

Jefferson Smurfit Group: An 8.4 per cent increase of £530,000 for each of the six executive directors. Bonuses and incentives were twice that level. The six directors included the three Smurfit brothers, Michael, Dermot and Alan, Dr Michael's son Tony, Mr Paddy Wright and Mr Ray Curran.

CRH: The five executive directors, Liam O'Mahony, Brian Hill, Harry Sheridan, Don Godson and Brian Griffin, increased their basic salaries by 17 per cent to an average of €407,351 (£321,000) in 1998.

Waterford Wedgwood: It does not clearly identify basic salaries but the average of "other remuneration" - excludes bonuses and fees and pension - amounted to an average of £230,000 for each of the six executive directors in 1998 representing a 38 per cent increase on the average paid to the seven executive directors in 1997. The non-executive directors had an effective 25 per cent increase in fees to an average of £16,000.

Anglo Irish Bank: It has been very precise in averaging the number of executive directors serving in the year to September 30th 1999. There was an average increase of 6.2 per cent, they received an average salary of £192,900 compared with an average of £176,200 previously. That represents an increase of 9.5 per cent. The non-executive directors received a substantial rise; a 34 per cent increase to an average of £27,885.

Glanbia: (The merged Avonmore and Waterford Foods group.) The eight executive directors increased their salaries by 14.6 per cent from an average of £168,625 to £193,250. And the non-executive directors did even better with a 31.5 per cent gain to an average of £8,036.

Greencore: (The Irish Sugar group.) The three executive directors received an average salary of €255,300 (£201,000), in the year to September 24th 1999. That is a 7.1 per cent increase on the previous year.

Grafton: Basic salaries rose 12.4 per cent to an average of €178,500 (£140,000) in 1998.

Kerry Group: This is the only company of the random sample that had a modest increase. This amounted to 3.3 per cent to an average of £191,600 for each of the five executive directors.

AIB: The four Irish-based executive directors saw their average salaries rise to £237,750 in 1998 compared with an average of £219,700 for the previous year. That represented an 8.2 per cent increase.

Bank of Ireland: The three executive directors were each paid an average of £251,000 in the year to March 31st 1999 compared with an average of £224,300 for the executive directors in the previous year. That represented an 12 per cent increase.

A lot of play has been made of the proposed tax cuts that would add a further 10 per cent to the pay of workers over the life of the new pay agreement. However, tax cuts also benefit executive directors who have not participated in the old agreement and yet have gained disproportionately from the added wealth (other sectors have also gained a larger share of the cake). Those benefits will be even more obvious, for the individual directors, when the new rules on directors' pay are implemented, a move that has been stoutly resisted by the Institute of Directors in Ireland.