The board of Telecom Eireann is expected to discuss payments to be made to its four outgoing directors on Wednesday. The four, who agreed to relinquish their positions at the request of the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mrs O'Rourke, each have five-year contracts with the company. They are likely to be paid directors fees due to them over that period without further compensation.

The four, former Central Bank governor, Mr Maurice Doyle; Labour appointee, Ms Evanne Kilmurray; accountant, Ms Marie Hurley and Professor of Microelectronics Research at University College Cork, Mr Gerry Wrixon have all served for varying periods on the Telecom Board.

Mr Doyle was due to serve for another three years and as such will be entitled to directors fees of £15,000 under his contract. Prof Wrixon would also be due to receive £15,000.

Ms Kilmurray had two years still to serve and would have earned directors fees of £10,000 had she stayed for the full five-year term while Ms Hurley is the most recent appointee. She was due to remain as a director for a further three-and-a-half years and as such would be paid around £17,000.

A spokesman for the Minister said yesterday that Mrs O'Rourke has stated she sees no reason why the directors wouldn't be paid for the rest of their contract as they have served the State well in their capacity as directors. But he added the payment is a matter for the board of Telecom Eireann. The Minister is due to announce the names of two directors tomorrow who will now join the board. Mrs O'Rourke has already appointed Mr Brian Thompson, former vice-chairman of US telecoms group Qwest, as non-executive chairman.

Other non-executive positions will be held by former EU Commissioner, Mr Ray McSharry and the trade unions will be represented by former Labour leader, Mr Dick Spring. One other senior business figure is expected to join in a non-executive capacity. The Minister is acting on the recommendations of the Government advisers handling the forthcoming flotation of Telecom Eireann on the stock market and will be seeking to add international business expertise to the board.

It is expected that she will appoint a second executive director to the board to join Telecom Eireann chief executive, Mr Alfie Kane, who is already a director.

The other executive director role could be that of chief financial officer in line with the board structure in most publicly-quoted companies.

Mrs O'Rourke asked five of the company's non-executive board members to relinquish their posts last week.

Four of the five agreed to step down while Mr Paul Mackay, a trustee of the Progressive Democrats, declined and will remain in his position.