AIB has appointed Brendan McDonagh, a former chief executive of HSBC North America, as a non-executive director.

A former member of Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency board and current non-executive at the UK Asset Resolution Ltd, Mr McDonagh serves on the advisory board of the business school of Trinity College Dublin.

AIB has also added Carolan Mary Lennon, managing director of Eir's networks and wholesale division, Open Air, as a non-executive director.

The appointments come as the timing of the State’s long-awaited sale of a 25 per cent stake in AIB continues to drag.

In 2013, then chief executive David Duffy was preparing for the Government to start selling down its 99.8 per cent stake the following year. The timeline has been pushed out a number of times since then.

While Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has previously signalled that a sale is likely to take place in the first half of 2017, he said earlier this month that the Government had taken no firm decision on the matter.