Great deal for Irish Ferries

It may be 18 months before we know exactly how the Irish Ferries stand-off has benefited its parent group Irish Continental. As the group's financial year-end does not coincide with the calendar year it may be that long before the relevant details of the expense involved in the redundancy package figures in the group accounts.

But enough is known to suggest that Eamon Rothwell and his directors may be more than happy with the outcome despite all the unexpected hassle that dogged this latest venture.

Irish Continental is paying about €30 million to rid itself of 500 workers (the other 43 on its Irish passenger routes are staying). It incurred losses of about €6 million during the strike that resulted from its heavy-handed attempt to "secure" its ships from its own staff.

The company aimed to achieve cost savings of about €15 million when it embarked on its ploy. It got about €11 million according to reliable sources. So the planned payback of two years has been extended to three years, which is hardly the desired result.

But to a group making profits of about €20 million per annum these savings are still enormous. The cost of buying change will appear in the next accounts, and make the group loss-making but the bounce the following year will be significant.

And that's when the notes to the financial accounts will make for fascinating reading. Expect then that a sizeable bonus, probably for hundreds of thousands of euro and larger than any redundancy cheque to any worker no matter how long his service, will top up Rothwell's already generous pay for that year.