'I BUILT my house in 1988. How is it a 'trophy house'? I don't want this crap coming at me!" It was Pat Kenny, but certainly not as we have known him at any time during all his years at RTE. Deadly serious and deadly boring are just two of the ways most people would describe Pat -- a science graduate who looks like an accountant and speaks as carefully as a lawyer, but chooses instead to make a rather handsome living from broadcasting.

Last Monday night on Frontline Pat was still being deadly serious, but he was anything but boring when he lit on Siptu General President Jack O'Connor over a careless comment about his Dalkey home.

As the debate developed, O'Connor suggested that a "reasonable level of tax" should be levied on what he rather begrudgingly referred to as "trophy houses".

Asked by Kenny what a "trophy house" was, O'Connor snapped back: "A house like yours, probably."

The bearded union chief was probably trying to be smart. In taking a cheap shot at the Frontline presenter, however, he showed it wasn't beyond him to be stupid.

By going on the offensive -- albeit unwittingly -- against Kenny over the home he bought and paid for over 20 years ago, O'Connor raised fresh questions for himself and his fellow union leaders in relation to their own standards of living. Do they, for example, live in so-called "trophy homes"?

An examination of the salaries of the various trade union bosses shows they could certainly afford to take up residence in any one of a number of the capital or country's most exclusive addresses.

Take Mr Faux Pas himself, Jack O'Connor, for example. The general president of Siptu and Ictu took home a very respectable €124,895 in 2008, a salary paid for out of the subscriptions of the union's 200,000 strong membership base. But does Jack live in a "trophy home"?

Not exactly; but with no mortgages registered against it, according to the files at the Registry of Deeds, Mr O'Connor's home just outside Naas in Co Kildare -- which is currently worth in the region of €450,000 -- would be the equivalent of a lotto win to the estimated 350,000 people across the country currently experiencing the nightmare of negative equity, or the awful prospect of losing their homes altogether through repossession.

And Jack is certainly alright when it comes to his retirement, given his entitlement to a defined benefit pension. Ictu's general secretary David Begg fares even better than Mr O'Connor in the pay and perks stakes according to information released by the union federation.

Indeed, Mr Begg's salary of €137,400, coupled with a defined benefit pension and company car put him on a par with a Minister of State.

Add to that the distinctively white-bearded union man's role within the Economic and Social Research Institute, his membership of the National Economic and Social Council and his non-executive directorship of Aer Lingus, and David Begg is certainly a busy man.

His role at Aer Lingus is a well-compensated one, however, with €32,000 in fees payable annually. Mr Begg is also entitled to an annual entitlement of €13,000 in free flights from the airline in his position as a member of the board.

Not that the Ictu man accepts for a second any charge of feathering his already well-feathered nest.

Defending himself from the allegation frequently levelled by Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary that he has his nose "in the trough" at the former state carrier, Mr Begg insists that his Aer Lingus fees go into the coffers of his primary paymaster Ictu; and that he does not avail of the free flights perk. But does he live in a trophy home?

Certainly, Mr Begg's detached dormer bungalow just outside the village of Rolestown in rural north county Dublin is very comfortable and substantial in size.

And while it isn't exactly the equivalent of a Communist Party chief's dacha, it does sit detached and removed from its neighbours on its own plot behind electronically-controlled gates.

And despite the national tumble in property prices, Mr Begg's home -- which has no mortgages registered against it -- is understood to be worth in the region of €650,000.

Closer to the city centre, Impact's general secretary Peter McLoone lives in, at first glance, a far more modest dwelling in Beaumont, within walking distance of one of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's favoured watering holes, the Beaumont House.

But the union man hasn't left the local authority-built house untouched. A substantial attic conversion complete with Velux windows is clearly visible from the road outside the property, adding significant living space for Mr McLoone and his family.

With an annual salary of €171,313 and no mortgages registered against his €400,000 family home, Mr McLoone would appear to be doing very well for himself as he goes about fighting to protect the interests of Impact's 65,000-strong membership which is drawn largely from the health sector and local government.

Up until recently Mr McLoone had enjoyed even greater annual earnings, with €24,000 for his role as chairman of the state training authority, Fas.

The Impact chief stood down from that position along with the rest of the Fas board in the wake of the scandal which had seen the authority's former chief executive Rody Molloy resign in controversial circumstances over lavish expenses.

Over on Dublin's southside, former Siptu president Des Geraghty lives in the very comfortable surrounds of Blackrock in a spacious bungalow which is located a private road just off the exclusive Merrion Avenue.

As a leading proponent of the now ailing social partnership process, Mr Geraghty's career thrived during the boom years with appointments to the RTE Authority, the board of Fas and the National Competitiveness Council all included on his CV.

The one-term member of the European Parliament continues to serve as the Chairman of the Affordable Homes Partnership, while enjoying the benefit of a defined benefit pension from his tenure as Siptu president.

Mr Geraghty's own home, with a current market value in the region of €750,000, remains far from affordable for the majority of people.

Also on the southside of Dublin is the general secretary of the Civil and Public Services Union, Blair Horan.

Mr Horan, who earns in the region of €120,000 a year for his representation of some 14,000 civil servants, resides in a semi-detached house -- which is worth in the region of €500,000 in current market conditions -- in the suitably middle-class suburb of Rathfarnham .

Mr Horan will also enjoy the increasingly rare perk of a defined benefit pension scheme.

Just a short drive from Mr Horan, in the nearby southside suburb of Knocklyon, is Larry Broderick, the General Secretary of the Irish Bank Officials Association.

But unlike his fellow union chiefs, Mr Broderick isn't mortgage free.

According to records held at the Registry of Deeds, the bank workers' advocate cleared a mortgage he had from the Bank of Ireland on his substantial detached home in 2007, before taking out a new home loan with the AIB.

This mortgage has not yet been satisfied, according to the latest available records held at the deeds registry.

A house similar to Mr Broderick's, and situated on the same road, was on the market for €895,000 in December of last year.

Given the decline in house prices, however, current values for Mr Broderick's home and others in his estate are understood to be hovering closer to €600,000.

- Ronald Quinlan

Sunday Independent