A stock deal for Telecom Eireann employees that would see each TE employee receiving stock valued up to £100000 when the company floats has been greeted with disgust. The chairman of TE, Brian Thompson, speaking at a conference in Dublin Castle today rejected claims that employees are getting too much. Most people who have had to put up with the extortionate phone bills have a distinctly different view. According to Thompson, the value of the network had been built up by the employees. The reality is that the Irish public created the value of the network by government funding and by having to pay the highest phone rates in the world. TE was regarded until recently as being a bloated organisation with too many employees.

The most logical solution would have been to let employees of TE purchase shares at a preferred rate. One source commented: "They do not deserve to be given stocks. TE has screwed the public on the domestic front and on the business front. They only introduced cuts when they were forced to by competition. Now they are to be rewarded for ripping off the Irish public - that is an absolutely sickening state of affairs. Why the hell don't the people who have had to pay TE phonebills get free shares?"