"i have found the decision-making process here more hard-nosed than when I worked with plcs," Mr Shane Cleary, chief executive of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS), says of the council and executive of the society with which he has worked since 1992.

"They are a forum and, like any other forum, we debate things. I find the board very decisive and the council has always given me a fair hearing," he insists.

In his splendid new offices overlooking the main jumping arena in Ballsbridge in Dublin, Mr Cleary talks of the support and commitment of the council and executive, which essentially are the controlling boards of the RDS, when he instituted a £7 million (#8.9 million), six year development plan for the complex, now being completed.

The plan has seen renovation and building at Ballsbridge - "a combination of listed and unlisted buildings, but we've remained true to the mockTudor facade, which is what the RDS is, while turning it into one of the principal conference venues in Dublin".

Facilities for members of the society, its customers and the general public have been improved. "They had got a bit tired. The Concert Hall is just being finished and the Four Seasons [hotel] is a very important development for the society." (The site is leased to the hotel chain for 99 years.)

This has resulted in an operating surplus of £1.34 million on a commercial income of £6.7 million for last year, approximately double that of 1999 and a far cry from the pathetic performances of the recession years in the 1980s, when much of the family silver, in the form of property, had to be sold off.

While exhibitions, conferences, trade shows and political rallies are the mainstay of the commercial side of the society, these are run to make money for the "foundation activities" of the society. "At the end of the day, the reason the RDS is here is to support its foundation activities. They have been unchanged since 1731," Mr Cleary explains.

"They are support of the arts, of industry, of agriculture and science on the island of Ireland. We have a formula whereby, roughly speaking, of the surplus in any one year, one-third goes to the foundation activities directly, one-third into investment funds to build up reserves, and one-third into the development and constant maintenance of the complex here."

The Four Seasons lease may be a blueprint for the future. The RDS has plans - which Mr Cleary won't even whisper about - for the future development of the property that do not involve sell-off but will allow it to reduce its dependence on its commercial business.

"We have to develop further the real estate on which we sit here. The management has been working on a development plan. We're now at a reasonably advanced stage of further development planning, looking at the potential for deriving more revenue from what we have here. The council has laid down that there will be no sale. You can take that as absolute."

For many years, few people could dispute the fact that the society, while providing a lovely facility for people of a certain age or interest in the greater Dublin area, was not exactly the most attractive club to join. In truth, it had a fuddy-duddy image. Has it changed? "I think it has, perhaps, a rather conservative, maybe oldfashioned image. I don't think that is all bad either - with that comes dependency and standards. But I hope now it has a more 2000 image. I believe most people consider it a venue where a lot of things happen. I wouldn't want our altruistic side to be forgotten either.

"I think we have a more modern image - pop concerts in the arena and many things young people come to. We're not just the Horse Show, although it's the most important event that we do. It's a £1 million event, a very successful, truly international event."

A decision on whether, in the light of the foot-and-mouth crisis, the Kerrygold Dublin Horse Show can be held this year will be taken next Monday.

Membership of the society, one of the oldest of its kind in Ireland, declined from a high of some 13,00 in the 1980s to its current 6,500, but is increasing at the rate of more than 300 a year.

"We've invested £500,000 in membership activities, a very attractive members' club, and marketing and making people more aware of the RDS than before," he reports.

Mr Cleary came to the RDS after a very interesting business career, and while born in Loughrea, Co Galway, in 1941, did not have an agricultural background, "although I did spend a lot of time on my aunt's farm in Castledaly".

His family moved to Dublin when he was 13 and he attended Colaiste Mhuire "and did all my education as Gaeilge" - an accomplishment that no doubt led to his appointment as chief executive of Bord na Gaeilge from 1979 to 1982.

He was managing director of Dawson Technology in Folkestone in England from 1988 to 1990 and a further linguistic accomplishment - French - came when he was appointed managing director at the European headquarters in Paris of William Dawson Holdings plc in 1990. He also has a good working knowledge of German.

While he worked in Paris on weekdays, he and his wife Joan maintained their family home in Folkestone, while he got the 6 o'clock ferry every Monday to France and "loaded up with wine and cheese" on Friday evenings to return. "I loved Paris, absolutely loved it and would go back to France at the drop of a hat," he says nostalgically.

But when it was time to come back to the Republic, he was very grateful that Joan had insisted on keeping on their home in Rathnew, Co Wicklow, where they now live, although without the two horses they always had when the family was young. His son Gavin now works in a Dublin IT company, while daughter Catherine is security correspondent of the Sunday Tribune and was formerly crime corespondent of The Irish Times. His other son, Simon, manages a bar in Kensington in London.

When not working, Mr Cleary enjoys climbing and hill walking, and goes to the Alps every year "with like-minded individuals". He is a fisherman who makes it to the west of Ireland about three times a year for salmon and trout fishing. Although he played classical music for many years, he now plays the jazz guitar and does occasional gigs with his friend, Mr Edward Hamilton.

But his working week is a serious one, with never-missed time-limited Monday morning meetings with his senior management. "You should always decide at a meeting when its going to end and you should end it," he insists. "We have an excellent team of people here and I am a great believer in delegating and largely letting them get on with it."

And there's only very occasional travel these days, usually to gatherings such as the International Association of Conference Centres, where he goes to see what's happening in his area of work and to develop an international reputation for the RDS as a conference centre.