It may be just as well that Irish Life is no longer an autonomous entity after its decision to sign off with full disclosure of its directors' earnings. Group chief executive David Went had made it clear that he supported such transparency, but it goes against the trend among his corporate peers.

Only this week, Irish Stock Exchange chief executive Tom Healy was canvassing exchange constituents for options to put to the Tanaiste Mary Harney, in an effort to avoid the full force of her threat to legislate to enforce compliance with full disclosure.

Even if the justifiable assumption that corporate Ireland does not welcome the idea of transparency on remuneration is correct, the Minister will have taken heart from the letter which admitted that resisting change was not an option.

Mind you, it begs the question: if the exchange recognises this is a difficult issue and one on which views on each side are strongly held, just how does it expect to win, given that the Minister has the legislative ace up her sleeve?