Sir, - I knew if I were patient I would eventually find it. And sure enough, in my battered 1961 edition, C. Northcote Parkinson did not let me down. Under what he terms the Law of Triviality, he states that the time spent on any item on the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.
It is now clear that this law is alive and well in 2002, and living in the boardrooms of Allfirst and AIB. So, while customers of these banks were being pursued over late payments of trivial sums, the loss of a mere €864 million passed unnoticed. - Yours etc.
Mount Auburn Mews,
Killiney,
READ MORE
Co Dublin.