"This is my last annual general meeting and I would like to thank the board and shareholders for the last 34 years. It has been an exciting, fulfilling and rewarding time."That was Dr Michael Smurfit's parting comment to Jefferson Smurfit shareholders at yesterday's annual general meeting, an event that had none of the fireworks of last year when Dr Smurfit came under sustained criticism for the size of his pay packet.

The polite ripple of applause that greeted Dr Smurfit's valedictory comments was pretty muted, but that was possibly because shareholders knew that in a year's time, he will be back at the annual meeting in his capacity as company chairman. He is stepping down from the dual role of chief executive although the Smurfit family still dominates the executive levels.

And unlike last year when Dr Smurfit had to endure a barrage of criticism over his remuneration package, yesterday's meeting heard only one brief criticism.

One shareholder said that the €12 million received by Smurfit directors was 87 per cent of the combined directors' salary packages at AIB, Bank of Ireland and CRH.

Dr Smurfit's response was characteristically curt: "We don't compare ourselves against Bank of Ireland or AIB, they're totally different companies."

Dr Smurfit was even more dismissive when responding to an environmental campaigner, Ms Christina Warner, who claimed that the company was guilty of causing environmental damage in its Colombian operations and refused to negotiate with indigenous farmers in a land dispute.

"We've done none of those things, it's a falsehood. I don't know why you come year after year and make these spurious allegations," he stated.