A look back at the week in business.
THE NUMBERS
€50 million- value of sales in the Irish art market in 2007, according to James O'Halloran of auctioneers James Adam Sons.
€10 million- – estimated value of art sales this year, as "people who know and understand art" return to the market at less hyped prices.
BAD WEEK - BREFFNY MORGAN
Mary O'Rourke thinks he's very attractive, but Bill Cullen was not so fond of the 23-year-old Harvard graduate and boardroom escape artist, finally firing him this week. The Apprenticecandidate, known alternatively as Breffny, Breff or "the Breffmeister", didn't quite prove to be the "battle-hardened dynamo" he claimed he was on his application form. Undone by an inability to sell nasal strips and a habit of drifting off during business pitches, Breffny wound up in the presence of the Fianna Fáil TD on TV3's You're Firedsister show, prompting presenter Brendan O'Connor to note: "She's trying to recruit him for something, I'm not sure what." A cut-price public sector banker, perhaps?
GOOD WEEK - CHRISTINE LAGARDE
The French finance minister – living proof that an early career as a synchronised swimmer is no barrier to world domination – was ranked the number one finance minister in the European Union by the Financial Times. Its team of judges dubbed her a "star among world financial policymakers", ranking her first overall, first for political prowess, fourth for economic performance and fifth for credibility as far as financial markets are concerned. "Very kind of you," said Ms Lagarde, who partly attributed the French economy's relative success to the fact that it avoided relying on an "overwhelming" financial sector. Do we really need to mention which EU finance minister came last in the FTrankings?
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"I've made it clear to the bank and the Government is clear on this, that the guidelines will not be broken"– Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan tells AIB that the Government is absolutely clear on the matter of executive salaries: €633,000 is taking the p***, €500,000 is perfectly fine.
"The directors of AIB are not in the business of eyeballing the Government, or as one person said yesterday, giving one finger to the taxpayer and one finger to the Government"- Seán O'Driscoll, chairman of AIB's remuneration committee, cannot understand the bad press.
