Mr Malcolm Fallen, the chief financial officer of Eircom, is leaving his €500,000 a year job at the embattled company after 18 months. Mr Fallen, who is joining a smaller company in England, said his departure was not connected to the backlash from small shareholders over the €1.2 million bonus he shared last year with Mr Alfie Kane, the chief executive.

The 40-year-old accountant said that he was leaving for genuine family reasons. He said that he had two daughters from a pervious relationship in England and had taken the decision to return to Britain with his other children in order to spend more time with his daughters.

"Perhaps for the first time in my career I am putting my family first," he said. He added that he had considered his position after a family holiday last August but had not informed the company of his decision until Monday evening.

Mr Fallen said that he had not made a final decision until last weekend as he did not want to be distracted ahead of the company's annual general meeting last Wednesday. The approach from Kingston Communications came at the same time as he was considering his future. "It was fortuitous," he said last night.

Kingston, which floated last year, is a considerably smaller company than Eircom. It operates a phone system in Kingston-upon-Hull in Yorkshire as well as offering services elsewhere in the UK under the Torch name. The company is quoted on the London Stock Exchange and has market capitalisation of around £1.5 billion sterling. Its revenues are much smaller than Eircom's, in the region of £200 million a year compared to €2 billion. Shares in Kingston were up 4p at 454p sterling yesterday.

"It was a logical move to make. It will allow me to have the lifestyle I seek. This job has been nothing other than 24 hours a day for the last year," Mr Fallen said. The executive recently moved into a house in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, which he agreed to buy last year.

He is not expected to leave until the end of the year. Although Mr Fallen's contract requires him to give 12 months notice senior executives are rarely held to such terms. The executive will not benefit from the controversial share option scheme pushed through last week at the company's annual general meeting in the teeth of opposition from small shareholders.

Eircom would not disclose Mr Fallen's current salary, but the most recent figure published was £250,000 a year with a bonus of up to 50 per cent. Mr Fallen may still collect some of his bonus payment for this year as it is at the discretion of the board. Potentially he could earn in the region of €1 million for his time at Eircom, whose shares have fallen from a post flotation high of €5 to €2.42.

Mr Kane said yesterday that Mr Fallen's departure was "very regrettable, but I fully understand the personal circumstances behind his decision".

Prior to joining Eircom, or Telecom Eireann as it then was, in March last year, Mr Fallen was group finance director with British Biotech. He was previously finance director, personal communications division, with British Telecom and, before that, worked for Phillips and Drew and Polly Peck International. An economics graduate of Cambridge University, he is a chartered accountant. The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said she understood that Mr Fallen was leaving for personal reasons and added: "I hope it works out satisfactorily for him."