RNS Number:8151W
Irish Life & Permanent PLC
18 May 2007


Irish Life & Permanent plc Annual General Meeting

May 18th 2007


   *Chairman's Statement on Trading for 2007

   *Denis Casey takes over as Group Chief Executive in succession to David
    Went who retires today




Friday 18th May 2007. Irish Life & Permanent plc today held its Annual General
Meeting for 2007. The meeting took place in Jurys Hotel in Ballsbridge in Dublin
commencing at 11.30am.


Speaking on trading issues at the meeting, the Chairman, Ms. Gillian Bowler,
commented:


"At the announcement of our 2006 Preliminary Results on February 28th last we
commented on our expectations for trading and earnings for the group in 2007 the
key elements of which were:


   *Another buoyant sales performance in our life business

   *A slower year for Irish mortgage growth due to effect of the stamp duty
    uncertainty on the residential mortgage market, and

   *Low to mid-teens growth in pre-tax operating profit from our core banking
    and life businesses.


Today, a further two and a half months into the year, the outlook has not
changed materially. The issue attracting most attention is the continuing
slowdown in the residential mortgage market in Ireland reflecting the impact of
rising interest rates and uncertainty over stamp duty on home purchases. In our
view a speedy resolution of the stamp duty issue - which looks likely following
next week's election - will see a recovery in new mortgage lending as the
underlying level of demand remains strong. Depending on the timing and extent of
the rebound we would expect the bank's overall loan book to grow by mid to high
teens percent in 2007. Meanwhile mortgage credit quality remains excellent.


In other areas of trading we are seeing very positive performances year to date:


   * Life sales, particularly in pensions and lump sum investments, are very
     strong and we are expecting another record breaking year

   * Irish Life Investment Managers continues to win new mandates

   * permanent tsb continues to attract very significant numbers of new
     current account customers opening an average of 1,250 new accounts every
     week.


Against this backdrop we are satisfied that we can deliver the targeted low to
mid-teens growth in pre-tax operating profit in our core businesses for 2007.


We will be making a more detailed comment on trading for the first half of the
year in our pre-close period trading statement to be issued on June 21st next".


Denis Casey replaces David Went as Group Chief Executive

The Chairman also paid tribute to outgoing Group Chief Executive, David Went,
who retires from the Group today. Speaking at the meeting, the Chairman said
that David Went had led the Group through an exciting and dramatic
transformation since he was appointed Managing Director of what was then Irish
Life plc in January 1998.


She continued; "No doubt David will be best remembered for the Group's
substantial corporate activity over the last decade; the merger of Irish Life
with Irish Permanent.... the acquisition of TSB Bank...the refocusing of
activities on the Irish economy and the creation of the Irish Life & Permanent
Group we know today.....but to my mind, his greatest successes were the enormous
confidence which he brought to our businesses and the strong focus on customer
services which he fostered across our operations and that has been the key to
our success."


The Chairman also paid tribute to incoming Group Chief Executive, Denis Casey.
She said; "Denis is an outstanding individual with an exceptional record of
achievement and leadership. And importantly he brings direct experience of
running two of the most important divisions in the Group; the Retail division of
Irish Life and - most recently - permanent tsb bank.


I have no doubt that he will lead this Group with great success for many years
to come and I look forward - very much - to working with him in the months and
years ahead."





Further Information:

Ray Gordon
MRPA KINMAN Communications
Ph: 01 6788330
Ph: 087 2417373



                      This information is provided by RNS
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