Gleeson: We drank too deeply from the national cup of confidence

THE best response outgoing chairman Dermot Gleeson could muster when asked how it all went so badly wrong at AIB? “We drank too deeply from the national cup of confidence.”

Several shareholders spoke of losing their life savings. One said his family had “several million” invested in the bank that was now gone down the drain. Mr Gleeson told shareholders his decision to retire in July was the correct thing to do. He said shareholders and other stakeholders are entitled to a clear signal of accountability. But he said the decision had not been forced on him by financial institutions or by the State.

Nevertheless, shareholders left him in no doubt about how they saw the situation.One said: “We feel absolutely robbed and cheated. You have pauperised a generation”.