Entrepreneur Harry Crosbie, an infrequent public speaker, got more than a few laughs when he spoke at the DHL Exporter of the Year lunch in the Commons Restaurant last week.

The entreprenurial spirit in Ireland, he said, was in danger of being tamed by all the support it was getting.

These days formulas for success are being offered. Its "just add water". When he was young all he wanted to be was "a head-banger".

Some head-banger. He said the Point Depot was only a side line and he spends very little time working on it.

He remembered the time he rang the Bolshoi Ballet, booked them for £3 million, and then discovered that staging such a production was no small job.

However, he said, the Russians were "great craic". One night the wife of a famous politician asked could she meet one of the dancers and it was organised that the dancer, a male, would meet her in a private bar backstage.

The dancer was straight off the stage, covered in sweat, "a three piece suite down his pants". He burst into the bar, carrying flowers, rushed over to the politician's wife, took her in his arms, and hugged her. She fainted.