Payments made to executive directors at Waterford Wedgewood down 24pc to €1.2m

Patrick Dowling (left) chief financial officer and Peter Cameron, chief executive of Waterford Wedgewood

THE cost of remunerating executive directors at luxury goods maker Waterford Wedgwood fell by 24pc from €1.58m in the year to the end of March 2006 to €1.2m this year, according to the annual report.

The change relates to the departure from the executive team of Tony O’Reilly jnr, and former chief executive Redmond O’Donaghue, who is now a non-executive director.

The cost of remunerating Peter Cameron, the company’s chief executive, fell from €411,000 to €390,000.

Mr Cameron is paid in dollars and it is understood that the fall relates to the weakness of that currency rather than any drop in Mr Cameron’s salary.

John Foley, chief executive of Waterford Crystal, saw his pay packet remain static over the period at €335,000, while the salary of Ottmar Kusel, the CEO of Rosenthal increased marginally from €336,000 to €350,000.

Consultancy

Mr O’Donaghue was paid €34,000 as a non-executive director, plus a further €150,000 for providing consultancy services to the company. Excluding this payment, the remuneration of non-executive directors fell by 15pc from €604,000 to €514,000.

The company chairman, Sir Anthony O’Reilly, Lady O’Reilly and Peter Goulandris waived their remuneration of €63,000, €29,000 and €34,000 respectively in both years. Sir Anthony is chief executive of Independent News & Media, which publishes the Irish Independent.