September 15th, 1995: Energy Minister Michael Lowry appoints Pat Dineen chairman of Bord na Mona. He takes over from Brendan Halligan who was chairman for 10 years.
December 1995: At monthly board meeting Mr Dineen says certain house practices have to change. These include the purchase of wine said to amount to £2,000 per annum for the use of the company. The board is also briefed about a Revenue Commissioners audit. Revenue had objected to Bord na Mona's payment method and the company had made a £240,000 tax settlement. Of this figure, £15,000 relates to expenses paid to Dr O'Connor.
April 20th 1996: Reports surface that Mr Dineen has asked auditors Price Waterhouse to review the remuneration package of Dr O'Connor, who says review is "routine" and that aspects of package were agreed with former chairman Brendan Halligan.
April 22nd: Price Waterhouse report shows Dr O'Connor received over £140,000 in expenses payments over the last three years. Of these £53,000 was for unvouched expenses for which receipts were not produced. The total package of salary, directors fees, pension and life assurance amounted to £150,000 £200,000 per annum. Dr O'Connor's salary is capped at around £65,000 per annum under the Gleeson scale which governs chief executives of State companies.
April 25th: Board considers report on Dr O'Connor's salary. Meeting lasts for eight hours and directors seek further information on remuneration package. A new report is commissioned, to cover the nine years of his managing directorship. Report is requested by the Department of Energy.
April 27th: Irish Times publishes further details of initial report into Dr O'Connor's remuneration package. The report shows that Dr O'Connor spent over £13,000 on flights during the three years it covers. Of this, only £8,252 was identified as business related. The report shows that Dr O'Connor spent £2,400 on suits which he charged to the company in lieu of VHI payments and that the company paid Dr O'Connor's membership of Elm Park Golf Club in Dublin, which cost between £987 and £1,045 per year.
April 27th: Worker directors in Bord na Mona ask for emergency board meeting to review developments.
April 29th: Bord na Mona meeting decides to take no action until the second report is completed.
June 6th: Board meets to consider the new report, in draft form at this stage, on Dr O'Connor's nine year term. It is understood to detail further substantial expenses. The board adjourns meeting after four hours and gives Dr O'Connor another week to clarify issues raised by the report. It emerges that Price Waterhouse had sought a meeting with Dr O'Connor to discuss the new report, but he had been unavailable.
June 9th: Details of draft report are leaked to two Sunday newspapers. The reports say that when Dr O'Connor's salary, bonus, pension contributions and all personal and business expenses were added over his nine year term, the total came to £1.86 million. When two special top up pension payments are excluded, the total came to £1.3 million. It finds his expenses ran to £585,000.
Dr O'Connor says the majority of his expenses were of no benefit to him. He says the only purpose of including his business costs in the calculation was to exaggerate grossly what he was supposed to have earned. He says he is sure his total salary, including bonuses and expenses, came to no more than £750,000 over the nine years. He also says the then board mandated Mr Hailigan to negotiate a deal and to keep its terms confidential.
June 10th: Board meeting postponed for three days to allow time for Dr O'Connor to meet Price Waterhouse to clarify elements in their draft report.
June 14th: Board meets for the fourth time, but postpones meeting for further five days because Dr O'Connor has still not met consultants. Board says it will judge whether Dr O'Connor's pay package conformed with tax laws and Government guidelines. Mr Dineen says he has met Mr Halligan who had approved Dr O'Connor's package, but not individual expenses. Dr O'Connor says Mr Halligan's comments vindicate "what I have been saying all along".
June 19th: Board meets to consider final Price Waterhouse report.