JANUARY

A LANDMARK study of the pensions timebomb fudges the crucial issue of whether workers should be forced to save for retirement. Social affairs minister Seamus Brennan sends the issue back for yet more investigation, including an estimate of the likely cost to the Exchequer.

Employers bitterly oppose mandatory pensions, claiming it would amount to another tax on jobs.

As currently envisaged, mandatory pensions would mean that younger workers would have to save a fixed percentage of their wages. To sweeten the pill, they would get Euro1 tax relief for every Euro1 saved and would also be able to dip into their savings, although with strings attached.

Businessman Denis O'Brien grabs the headlines for the first of many times in 2006, buying a 3% stake in Independent News & Media for an estimated Euro50m. The surprise move may be an attempt to settle old scores dating from 2002, when IN&M's Tony O'Reilly elbowed O'Brien out of the picture to win control of Eircom.

But O'Brien has other battles on his mind, including blocking Ryanair's attempted takeover of Aer Lingus and a high-stakes libel action against the Mirror newspaper, that netted him a record Euro750,000 settlement in November. He also found time to move offshore to Malta, following a previous period of self-imposed exile in Portugal.

FEBRUARY

STATOIL calls it quits in Ireland by seeking buyers for its 12 oil depots and 69 service stations. The business is sold for an estimated Euro280m in June to Topaz Energy Group, a consortium that had picked up Shell's petrol assets on both sides of the border the previous year.

The concentration of ownership has obvious regulatory implications but the Competition Authority is left with lots of egg on its face in October when it emerges that, having missed the deadline by one day, it has no option but to wave the deal through.

Sarah Newman, partner of Kilkenny hurling star DJ Carey, sells her hotel booking business for Euro60m. The 75 employees of Needahotel. com share in her good fortune, each receiving an envelope with "several thousand" euro tax free along with news of the sale.

Newman founded the business 11 years previously after spotting an opportunity for hassle-free travel bookings in the nascent online market.

MARCH

IN WHAT will prove to be a landmark year for Cavan businessman Sean Quinn, his Quinn Direct operation reports a 52% jump in profits to Euro232m for 2005, the biggest result ever by an Irish insurance company.

It is a considerable turn around for a business that, only a few years previously, had made it appear that Quinn was losing his Midas touch.

The bumper bottom line is followed by big expansion plans in August, when Quinn Direct announces the creation of 1,000 new jobs in Navan, Blanchardstown and Cavan.

The new recruits will support the company's growing motor and commercial insurance operations in Britain and beyond.

Troubled Elan gets some good news at last when the powerful Food and Drug Administration approves the return of its blockbuster Tysabri drug to the American market.

The move is greeted by the stock markets, although the initial cheer largely fizzles out when it emerges that the FDA had failed to give Tysabri a clean bill of health. Undaunted, Elan comes up with new uses for its wonder drug, seeking approval for Tysabri in the fight against Crohn's disease alongside its original application in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

APRIL

THE banks begin offloading their considerable property assets - a sure sign that the market has peaked.

AIB agrees a Euro378m saleand-leaseback of its Bankcentre headquarters with property developer Sean Dunne and Hibernian Life & Pensions.

Bank of Ireland, meanwhile, may be on the move after its headquarters on Dublin's Baggot Street is sold to developer Paddy Shovlin and Quinlan Private for more than Euro200m.

Next in line are the branches, with both banks agreeing sale-and-leaseback agreements at several landmark locations.

National Irish Bank uses the Easter holidays to complete the changeover to the high-tech systems of its new Danish parent, Danske Bank.

A complete product revamp is part of the package, although nobody really notices until October, when NIB makes an bold move to pinch other banks' mortgage customers.

It is going after people who already have equity in their homes, offering them a home loan interest rate that starts at just a half percent above base rates.

With margins this thin, NIB cannot afford the commissions needed to sell through mortgage brokers. The jury is still out on whether this go-italone strategy will succeed.

MAY

AUSTRALIANS Babcock & Brown launch a formal takeover offer for Eircom, marking the fourth time the former monopoly telco has changed hands in six years.

The all-cash offer is worth Euro2.20 a share plus a special dividend, valuing Eircom at Euro2.4bn.

Having passed through so many hands so quickly, the big question is whether there can be any value left in Eircom to pick over. The Australians' big plan will probably see the telco split in two, holding on to the network while spinning off the retail business into a separate company.

Either way, another change of ownership is on the cards as Babcock and Brown looks to another stock market flotation of what remains of Eircom for their exit strategy.

Expectations that payday cannot be far off are raised for members attending the annual general meeting of Irish Nationwide, postponed at the order of the Financial Regulator.

Even though legislation allowing for a quick sale of building societies is rushed through the D�?il just before the summer recess, the Nationwide still remains on the shelf.

The delay leaves members perplexed, some of whom fear they will not live long enough to get their hands on the windfalls, estimated by some to be worth as much as Euro15,000 a head.

Managing director Michael Fingleton can expect next another bitter AGM in 2007 unless he pulls a buyer for the Nationwide out of the hat, soon.

JUNE

ESTATE agents follow the banks' lead by selling out at the top of the property cycle.

The 15 equity owners of Hamilton Osborne King share Euro50m after selling the firm to London blue blood Savills.

Managing director Paul McNeive and chairman Aidan O'Hogan get Euro5m each.

Within days, the directors of Colliers Jackson-Stops sell a majority stake in the Dublin firm to Colliers CRE, one of Britain's top 10 agents, in a deal worth Euro4.8m.

And the following month, the Irish Times pays a whopping Euro50m for online property portal, Myhome. ie.

The owners of Roches Stores also cash in on the property boom by putting the family business up for sale.

The retail chain, which dates from the turn of the last century, is eventually sold in August to British department store operator Debenhams for Euro29m. But the Roche family keeps ownership of the nine retail outlets, including landmark premises on Dublin's Henry Street and Patrick Street in Cork, which they now lease back to Debenhams.

The transaction is criticised as further evidence of the encroachment of the bland British high street into Ireland. But the Roches franchise had been flagging for decades and was badly in need of a clean sweep.

JULY

RECLUSIVE property developer Liam Carrol buys Dermot Desmond's 22% holding in Greencore for Euro171m. The purchase is well timed, coming just days before agriculture minister Mary Coughlan awards Greencore the lion's share of a Euro145m EU compensation package for getting out of the sugar business.

For Carrol, however, the real prize is the food company's 900 acre land bank, especially its recently abandoned sugar factories in Carlow and Mallow.

In November, the company unveils its plans for these sites, seeking planning permission for a sprawling Euro1.1bn business park and commercial and residential centre for Carlow.

The plan gets a lukewarm reception from the 600 local people who lost their jobs when the sugar factory closed.

Some 94,000 Irish policyholders share a Euro90m windfall when they get free shares in Standard Life, the insurance company forced to abandon mutuality and seek a listing on the London Stock Exchange.

The value of the windfalls has soared for people who resisted the temptations of a quick profit and held on to the shares. Floated at £2.30, they are now nudging £3, with expectations that Standard Life may eventually be taken over by a bigger insurance company propping up the price.

AUGUST

TV3 CHANGES hands for Euro265m when private equity house Doughty Hanson takes control after ITV bows out.

For viewers, however, little has changed with the commercial channel nailing down a long-term deal with ITV to continue broadcasting such cultural gems as Coronation Street, Emmerdale and I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!

The only new faces are in the news room where TV3 bosses tried to slow down the revolving door by refusing to part company with Claire Byrne, who has swapped TV for radio, until her threemonth notice period had expired.

The Dublin Airport Authority finally offloads seven of the eight hotels in the lossmaking Great Southern group for more than Euro265m.

Developer Bernard McNamara, the man behind the over-budget revamp of Dublin's Shelbourne hotel, gets the Parknasilla in Kerry for around Euro40m.

Galway-based developer Gerry Barrett was prepared to dig even deeper, fixing a price of Euro140m on three hotels in Galway and Killarney. But before inking the deal, he flips the Killarney premises to a group of local interests for a reported Euro40m.

SEPTEMBER

SERIOUS problems emerge at Smart Telecom as the troubled telco lays its problems bare at the annual general meeting. The share price collapses, chief executive Oisin Fanning steps down and a strategic review of the company's business gets underway.

Problems deepen the following month when Eircom pulls the plug on 45,000 Smart landline customers over an unpaid Euro4m bill. The company is eventually put out of its misery when the biggest shareholder, Brendan Murtagh, buys it for a nominal Euro1, taking on debts estimated at Euro40m.

News emerges that talks between top management at Davy Stockbrokers and Bank of Ireland are at an advanced stage about buying out the bank's 90% stake in the country's leading stockbroker.

The buy-out will open up an exit route for chairman Brian Davy, chief executive Tony Garry and top deal maker Kyran McLaughlin.

They had managed to retain voting control in the firm, even after they sold a majority stake to Bank of Ireland.

The MBO also allows Davy to reward high flyers by giving them an equity stake in the business, a move that should halt a brain drain to rival stockbroking firms.

A deal with Bank of Ireland is finally concluded in November, valuing Davy at Euro317m.

OCTOBER

RYANAIR makes a dawn raid on Aer Lingus within days of the national airline's stock market debut. Its hostile offer of Euro2.80 a share, valuing Aer Lingus at close to Euro1.5bn, is a considerable improvement on the flotation price of Euro2.20.

But considering that the carrier has about Euro1bn of cash on the balance sheet, Ryanair is certainly not offering over the odds.

The budget carrier builds a 25% stake in Aer Lingus but, with formidable opposition from government, workers and other shareholders including businessman Denis O'Brien, its chances of getting majority control are slim. A better offer is always possible but would probably do nothing to persuade a solid core of shareholders, determined not to sell out to Michael O'Leary at any price.

Either way, the Ryanair boss has secured the position of kingmaker for himself at one of his biggest rivals and, as long as he sits on his 25% stake, he will have a big say in Aer Lingus's eventual destiny.

Barry O'Callaghan's Riverdeep puts the finishing touches to the deal of the year with a Euro4bn reverse takeover of American book publisher Houghton Mifflin.

It looks like a dream combination: Houghton Mifflin needs to put more of its material online and Riverdeep needs more content to put online. The two companies also know each other well, with Houghton Mifflin chief executive Tony Lucki having served on Riverdeep's board before O'Callaghan took it private in 2002.

The combined entity, HM Riverdeep, is expected to be floated or recapitalised in two to three years, giving an exit strategy to O'Callaghan and his top management, who own more than 50% of the company.

NOVEMBER

NORTHERN Ireland electricity generator Viridian, which owns the Huntstown power plant in north Co Dublin, is sold to Bahrain's Arcapita Bank for £1.62bn (Euro2.4bn). Viridian's attractions are obvious: stable earnings, juicy dividends and a tightly regulated market.

The new owners are not expected to rock the boat so it will be business as usual in the electricity market. Despite its investment south of the border, Viridian has limited itself to the corporate market.

C&C topped off a sparking year with speculation that it had become a takeover target, adding more fizz to a share price that has jumped by almost 150% in 2006. Gone is the iconic Tayto crisps business, sold to Largo Foods for Euro62.3m in July. Now Maurice Pratt and the rest of his management team can devote all their attention to the Magners cider brand, which quenched many a thirst during Britain's long hot summer.

The plan is now to repeat the Magners success story in continental Europe and maybe even America. The strong growth is vindication for a company that faced a wall of scepticism when it came to the market in 2004, when many people wrote it off as solid but dull.

DECEMBER

We thought it was bluffing.

But Bupa stuck to its word, pulling out of Ireland's Euro1bna-year health insurance market after health minister Mary Harney won High Court backing for controversial risk equalisation payments between health insurers, effectively a subsidy for state-owned VHI.

Even as employees at Bupa's Fermoy headquarters pack their bags, the British insurer announced it would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

Bupa's exit could by a Pyrrhic victory for VHI, whose days could be numbered in its present form.

Setanta Sports and Benchmark Capital sell their US sports channel to Disneyowned ESPN for a price tag believed to be Euro80m-Euro90m including debt.

Setanta will use the money to help pay for its Euro574m acquisition of live broadcast right for English Premiership soccer from next August.

It also needs to fund the acquisition of PGA golf rights.

The group, controlled by co-founders Leonard Ryan and Michael O'Rourke, is in the final stages of a Euro300m fundraising that will see TV3 owner Doughty Hanson and Goldman Sachs come on board as investors.