Consultants engaged by the Dublin Printing Group of Unions will meet the management of The Irish Times Ltd and the company's accountants this morning to begin their examination of the newspaper group's books.
Mr Paul Sweeney of Paul Sweeney and Associates, and Mr Greg Sparks of Farrell Grant Sparks, were engaged a week ago by the unions after management gave details of the company's financial difficulties and proposed cost-saving measures, including 250 redundancies.
The unions' consultants have been asked to examine the accounts with a view to outlining a plan that can fill the three objectives of the unions: to keep job losses to a minimum; to ensure that redundancies are voluntary; and to make sure that The Irish Times is viable into the future.
The consultants will be formally introduced to representatives of the company in its office in D'Olier Street at 9.30 a.m. today, according to Mr Michael Austen, director of human resources.
The Irish Times Ltd will be represented by Mr Alex Burns, of its accountants, KPMG.
The initial formalities will include issues such as fees and the time the process is expected to take.
Mr Seamus Dooley, Irish organiser of the NUJ, said yesterday that the consultants have already been engaged in preparatory work. They have indicated they will need to work in The Irish Times offices, and a room has been made available to them, according to Mr Austen.
A timescale for the completion of the work has not been laid down. The project follows similar work carried out by Farrell Grant Sparks in other companies, notably at Aer Lingus where it took two weeks.
Meanwhile, the editor of The Irish Times, Mr Conor Brady, has responded to a report in the Sunday Business Post concerning the purchase of his house in Monkstown.
The newspaper reported that The Irish Times had bought the house for him in 1988, two years after he became editor, and that he bought it from the company for £130,000 in 1990. Nine years later he bought the adjoining mews building from the company for £105,000.
In a statement yesterday Mr Brady said: "At the end of 1988 The Irish Times Ltd purchased the house in which I now live and the adjoining mews building. An independent, professional valuation was made on behalf of the company and I purchased the house at market value.
"I later leased and then purchased the mews in 1999. The same procedure was followed with regard to valuation and again I purchased at market value."
Mr Dooley said, in relation to this report, that the union did not comment on individual remuneration packages.