Budget travel chief takes reins at IL&P

The chairman of Irish Life and Permanent, Mr Roy Douglas, announced his retirement at today’s Annual General Meeting.

Mr Douglas said his main achievement over the past four years was "to oversee the merger and integration of firstly Irish Life and Irish Permanent and, more recently, Irish Permanent and TSB Bank and the creation of a Board to lead the Group to its current position as a leading provider in the Irish retail financial services market".

The incoming chairman is Ms Gillian Bowler, who joined the board of what was then Irish Life plc in 1999.

She is the founder and Chairman of Budget Travel, and also holds non-executive directorships at Grafton Group plc and VHI.

Speaking at the AGM, Mr Douglas, the outgoing chairman, said that the group was enjoying “strong growth across our principal businesses”.

“We are seeing exceptional growth in new mortgage lending over the record levels we enjoyed last year,” he said.

“Indeed, the mortgage market as a whole continues to perform very strongly fuelled not least by very favourable underlying demographics and continued low interest rates.”

At 12.30 this afternoon, shares in Irish Life and Permanent were unchanged from yesterday’s price, at €12.40, having shown a 2c increase in early trading.