The four executive directors of Eircom earned €29 million between them in the 2½ years since the company was taken private by Valentia Telecommunication.
The figures are disclosed in the prospectus for the company's return to the stock market, which is planned for later this month.
Mr Philip Nolan, the chief executive earned €13 million, while the chief financial officer, Mr Peter Lynch earned €5.7 million. Mr Cathal Magee, the head of retail operations earned €5.8 million. Mr David McRedmond, the commercial director earned €4.6 million.
The four directors are to get valuable options over shares in Eircom once it returns to the market. Mr Nolan already has options worth €700,000.
Mr Con Scanlon, the deputy chairman of the company, has been given shares worth €562,000. Mr Scanlon - who is a full-time trade union official - will also receive pension payments worth €1 million over the next 10 years and a lump sum payment of €230,000.
He will remain as deputy chairman earning fees of €106,000 in addition to a similar salary he draws in his capacity as general secretary of the Communications Workers' Union. Mr Scanlon is also the chairman of the Eircom Employee Share Ownership Plan Trustee (ESOT) which owns 30 per cent of the company.
The support of ESOT was vital to Valentia's successful takeover of Eircom, which was contested by Mr Denis O'Brien's eIsland consortium. ESOT and the other shareholders in Valentia - which is chaired by Sir Anthony O'Reilly - have seen the value of their initial €676 million investment grow by €200 million. In addition the shareholders shared a €400 million dividend last year bringing the return on their investment to over 50 per cent a year.
Sir Anthony invested €25 million in Valentia and will gross €45 million from the sale of his shares in the flotation on top of his €10 million share of last year's dividend. Over 450,000 small shareholders saw their losses in Eircom crystalised when Valentia bought Eircom in November 2001 for €1.365 per share. They had invested €3.90 a share in mid-1999 when the government sold Telecom Éireann. In mid-2001 Eircom disposed of its mobile division, Eircell, to Vodafone.
Vodafone shares closed at just over £1.35p last night, the equivalent of €2.04.
Any original investors in Eircom who retained Vodafone shares are still nursing losses of around €1.50 per share or almost 40 per cent of their investment.