Independent Newspapers has probably the biggest board of any Irish public company with a total of 24 men still no women running the Indo's worldwide empire.

But when it comes to reinvesting their dividends in the Indo, the same 24 men with the exception of chairman Tony O'Reilly are remarkably keen on taking cash instead of more Indo shares. The Indo chairman, who probably didn't need to take his £1.73 million half-year dividend in hard cash, opted for shares but he was pretty much the exception.

Next biggest shareholder on the board is Gerry McGuinness with shares worth £12 million. Gerry McGuinness has been a periodic seller of large chunks of Indo shares in recent years but still felt the need to take his dividends of more than £81,000 in cash.

Deputy chairman John Meagher, with shares worth more than £8.3 million, also took in excess of £51,000 in cash dividends while Bartle Pitcher took more than £50,000 in cash instead of shares.

Indeed, of the near £250,000 in dividends due to the 23 directors on the board apart from Tony O'Reilly, less than 1,800 shares worth less than £7,000 were taken up with the rest of the dividend being paid out in cash. Beneficiaries of the cash dividend included two O'Reilly offspring, Cameron and Gavin, and chief executive Liam Healy.