THE winner of the Business and Finance Christmas Quiz is Mr Conor Smith, 4 Errigal, Cootehill, Co Cavan.

He is assistant manager of Ulster Bank's branch in Cootehill, Co Cavan.

His prize is a case of wine, Findlater's Directors Dozen.

There was a good response to the quiz with entries coming from most geographical areas but mainly from the greater Dublin area. One entry came from Bratislava in Slovakia.

The success rate was exceptionally high. Over 90 per cent of the entries had, correct answers to all questions.

The answers are as follows:

(1) Eddie O'Connor said "there has been a dishonest and concerted attempt to ruin my reputation'.

(2) Murray Consultants made a tax settlement of £1 million to the Revenue Commissioners.

(3) Bank of Ireland recorded a profit of £363.7 million in the year to March 31st (1996).

(4) It was false to say the IFA did not call for a change in our exchange rate policy, false to say a sub committee of the VHI recommended that the contract of Noel Hanlon be terminated, and true to say a proxy statement showed that Tony O'Reilly received remuneration of $63 million from Heinz in 1995/6.

(5) Tony Taylor said "I'm going to lie low for a while".

(6) The High Court appointed an examiner to Celtic Vision.

(7) Brendan Halligan admitted that the pay deal with Eddie O'Connor breached Government guidelines.

(8) It was false to say the following. All the minority shareholders in Lyons Irish Holdings were delighted to accept the offer from Unilever. The Stock Exchange said it was very pleased to allow CountyGlen to have a listing in perpetuity. CIE, following pressure from the Government, agreed to increase its costs by 10 per cent, so as to employ an extra 1,125 people.

(9) UTV decided to withdraw from the TV3 consortium because it failed to agree an arrangement with the in dependent Radio and Television Commission.

(10) Mary Harney said "a cloud of suspicion hangs over everybody for as long as this report remains a secret document".

(11) Bailey Irish Cream increased its sales by 4 per cent to 4 million cases.

(12) Financier Dermot Desmond bought large blocks of shares in Unidare.

(13) Budget Travel was acquired by Thomson.

(14) Jim Murphy took over as chief executive of Golden Vale.

(15) Michael Smurfit said "due to the large market positions which we now hold, we are unable to buck trends to the extent that we could when we were a smaller company".

(16) Michael Fingleton said "we should have heard something by now".

(17) It was true to say Michael Lowry's house extension is reported to have cost £208,000. It was false to say Mary Finan was not the first woman president of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. It was true to say Paddy Galvin said "I've been working a long time ... too long in fact...".

(18) IBM's planned £200 million plant in Mulhuddart in west Dublin is expected to employ up to 3,000 people.

(19) Mackic International gave a profit warning because of uncertainty over a major order in China.

(20) Waterford Wedgwood agreed to take a minority stake in, Rosenthal.