IF the government really wants to stop the frequent hawking of the state telecom network, it has the remedy in its powers: make it more difficult for the Eircom workers to keep on selling the blasted yoke.

The Eircom Employee Share Ownership Trust (Esot) is like the Scarlet Pimpernel. For the second time in four years, it is cashing in its shares in a second leveraged buyout and once more it is slipping out of the grasp of the taxman. Legitimately.

In the 2002 sale, to the Sir Anthony O’Reilly-fronted Valentia, the Esot took its profit in the form of preference shares. This time, there will be a different type of financial instrument, guaranteed by Babcock & Brown bankers. Once more, it will be better than cash in the hand. Thanks to Charlie McCreevy, the former minister for finance who loosened the rules governing the Esot’s liability, there will be no tax payable for the trust.

Forget the fact that ordinary Joes lost a third of their money in the original Eircom flotation; the real righteous indignation should be reserved for the fact that the Esot has made more than €1.2 billion from the hawking of Eircom and not paid a single penny in tax.

If the workers make money on the sale of a company, fine, but they should have to pay tax on the gain like other shareholders. Left-wing politicians who rise on their hind legs to barrack about businessmen abusing capital allowances keep an eerie silence on tax-free Esots and state workers.

It is not just Eircom. The sale of ACCBank also created a huge tax-free windfall for the staff through a financially engineered Esot.

When will the geniuses in the Department of Finance wake up to the fact that the state is being robbed of hundreds of millions of tax euros in the Esots. In the current sale alone, the state is losing €100m. Before Aer Lingus is sold, and the ESB, Bord Gais and Bord na Mona dole out lucrative shares to their staff, this legislation must be tightened. What will it take, an Eircom worker lighting a cigar with a fifty?

Danish, anyone?

There is little sleep to be had for the 800 or so people working on the €200m migration of National Irish Bank (NIB) and Northern Bank onto their owner Danske Bank’s beast of an IT system this weekend.

In a Nordic invasion, 300 Danes flew into Ireland last Thursday to make sure that nothing is left to chance.

On Tuesday, Danske will unveil the heavy artillery. The new product portfolio is a secret, but the focus will be on personal banking and the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) market.

It plans to lure customers online by making its internet banking services cheaper than other banking channels. The Danes are likely to upset the mortgage market the most.

At present, Irish mortgage spreads are about 1 percentage point over the rate at which banks lend to each other. Danske is able to offer mortgages in Scandinavia on a margin of 0.6 to 0.7 points above the cost of funds.