Ladies and gentlemen I give you... nobody, actually.

Ireland's economic slowdown hasn't just affected the pensions, pay offs and bonuses of corporate Ireland. Now, corporate entertainment has become a thing of the past.

Once the country's top comedians such as Dara O'Briain could make up to €10,000 performing a 20-minute set for employees of a large company. Now, many acts must settle for about €2,000. That's if they can find the work.

A spokesman for Pat Egan's In Person, a company which supplies after-dinner speakers for corporate events, told the Sunday Tribune: "I haven't heard of one corporate gig in the last six months. In fact, if we picked up one corporate event a month, we would be doing well. Corporate events have stopped. Corporate dinners as well. You notice at rugby matches corporate boxes aren't full anymore."

Ireland's comedians, who were laughing all the way to bank during boom times, have been hardest hit. A comedian who might last year might have earned €5,000 playing a show at Vicar Street in Dublin could double that performing a shorter 20-minute set before a corporate audience.

"The downturn has meant that not only have the big names dropped their fees, but there's virtually no work for any comedians in the corporate sector," the source said.

Cork comedian Alan Shortt has been among those hit. "My main income would have been in the corporate sector. The whole thing has collapsed. My belief is that the money is out there but companies can't be laying off people one day and then bringing employees out on a big night costing thousands the next. So they're not doing it.

"Whereas that's exactly what I think companies should be doing because if there was a time staff needed their morale boosted, it's now." Instead Shortt (42) said he finds himself increasingly performing free of charge at fundraising gigs.

"I think it's better to be out showing your talent than sitting at home. The irony is that the recession has provided me with so much new material but there's nowhere to perform it."