Gleeson sets the tone for AIB AGM

FOR a bank that earns €4m a day in profits AIB’s annual general meeting is not a terribly edifying affair.

It is getting to the point where hostility is strong in both directions from the top table to the small core of adversaries who have dogged the meeting in recent years. Chairman Dermot Gleeson set the tone early on when he floored his chief adversary, Niall Murphy, who claimed company law allowed him to ask as many questions as he liked at an annual general meeting.

It looked game set and match to Mr Murphy who had a tome of company law in his hand as he attempted to stamp his mark on the proceedings.

However, the chairman, one of the most eminent barristers in the country, was not to be outgunned. He told Mr Murphy that section he was quoting referred only to the first AGM when a company was being set up. First blood to Mr Gleeson.

Later in the proceedings Mr Gleeson couldn’t resist taunting Mr Murphy over his allegations at the previous AGM when he accused the chairman of covering up the awful state of affairs of the bank’s Polish operations.

Mr Gleeson noted that Poland had a very good year and he wondered if Mr Murphy would accept this statement of fact as an apology to the floor of the meeting for the serious and unfounded allegations of a year earlier. Mr Murphy made no comment at that point.

Another shareholder wanted to know why, in its filings to the SEC in New York, AIB failed to mention the ICI debacle of the mid-1980s when AIB had to be bailed out by the ordinary taxpayer.

To that Mr Gleeson replied on two fronts. It was not required of AIB to go back that far under its filings with the SEC.

He described the claim that the taxpayer bailed out AIB over ICI as “one of the great urban myths of our time.” He went on to say the Economic and Social Research Institute wrote a report that thoroughly debunked that claim.

During the meeting the chairman was taunted by a number of shareholders over the bank’s track record. After an hour and a half some journalists left the meeting, and it is understood Mr Murphy subsequently danced a jig for the entire gathering before he and another shareholder were finally asked to leave the meeting. Before the meeting got out of hand, the chairman in his opening remarks paid a very full tribute to outgoing chief executive Michael Buckley who had a “formidable impact on the bank” thanks to his “masterful leadership” during a very difficult time for the group.

“He has dealt superbly with some major challenges. His contribution to the strategic direction of the bank has been vital to the great success we have achieved and is clearly evident from the outstanding results achieved in 2004.”