Former Tanaiste and Eircom director Mr Dick Spring TD has apologised to small shareholders in Eircom for his approach to last Wednesday's annual meeting.
Mr Spring told the a.g.m. that he had not bought shares in the company when Eircom was floated because he did not have the money to do so at the time and he offered to make his bank statements available to prove this.
But when challenged by presenter Joe Duffy on RTE Radio's Liveline programme yesterday on meeting this commitment, Mr Spring replied: "That happens to be a joint account and, in fairness to my wife and my children, I don't think people need to know the size of my borrowings or otherwise."
Mr Spring conceded that he had underestimated the anger of small shareholders over the drop in Eircom's share price. "I regret that very much," he said.
Mr Spring also said he misread the inference that people would draw from his not being an Eircom shareholder. When he was approached by the trustees of the employee share ownership scheme to become a director, he did not give "a lot of consideration" to taking a shareholding.
"In retrospect, it would have been better if I had invested and bought some shares," he said, adding that he had "got it wrong".
When Mr Duffy asked if that the at the "earliest opportunity" to invest in Eircom to demonstrate his confidence in the company.
But Mr Spring defended the bonus payments and share options allocated to chief executive Mr Alfie Kane and paid tribute to the work carried out by him in preparing the company for flotation.
When Mr Kane had joined Eircom, the company was in very bad shape, with millions of pounds in borrowings, Mr Spring said.
"Alfie Kane and his team led that company into the IPO," he said.
He was challenged by Mr Duffy that Eircom employees, Irish taxpayers and Irish consumers had helped turn the company round but small shareholders saw the remuneration committee, of which Mr Spring was a member, channelling everything to Mr Kane.
Mr Spring said this was an exaggeration and payments to Mr Kane were a reward for work carried out over several years.
"Alfie Kane had not been rewarded in a number of years for his contribution to the company and it is also very important to keep people like Alfie Kane working for the company and leading the company and he got what basically we felt he deserved," he said.
When asked whether last Wednesday's meeting had damaged Eircom, Mr Spring said the State's image might have been damaged.
"I think if outside observers were looking at Ireland and investing in Ireland they wouldn't have been impressed with the interaction in the RDS on Wednesday," he said.
"But I think we have an obligation to make sure we can bring the share price up. We have to drive the company in a way that brings shareholder value and that is the challenge we are facing."
Responding to a telephone caller who criticised him for chewing gum during the a.g.m., Mr Spring said it was a habit he had taken up recently and he was going to give it up again. He had been nursing a sore throat and he thought the gum might help.
