Greencore chairman and chairman of Aer Lingus, Bernie Cahill has plenty of experience conducting meetings and he is not a man to hang about by all accounts. He generally ensures that board meetings last no longer than two hours. He believes people should make their points and then the board should evaluate them. However, Cahill recalls that not all board meetings at Aer Lingus lasted two hours. In 1993 and 1994, during the height of the airline's financial turbulence, the meetings lasted for several hours.

Hardly surprising given that they had to wrestle with the problem of stemming losses which were said to be running at £2 million per week.