Things are getting all democratic and scholarly down at the Central Bank, the influence, no doubt, of its bookish governor Patrick Honohan.

As revealed in The Irish Times this week, the bank will imminently file a planning application with Dublin City Council for its new €140 million headquarters in the Liffeyside shell that was once reserved for Anglo Irish Bank.

At its current headquarters on Dame Street, the bank’s top brass, including Honohan, have the entire top floor. This gives the guardians of our financial stability one of the best vantage points in the city – its headquarters is among the tallest and most distinctive office buildings in Dublin.

Isn't it amazing that the last
regime had a view of the whole city,
yet couldn't see beyond the end of
its nose when it came to financial stability?

A new broom, and all that . . .

An informant tells us that in the new headquarters, the governor and the other directors will be knocked from the top floor.

It sounds suspiciously like a symbolic, anti-elitist act. Not a bad thing, mind.

The top floor will instead be given over to a library and “learning development area”, along with a break-out snack bar.

How very Googly of them.

The current plan is to locate the governor and the other directors on the second floor, though we’re told this could change as the plan evolves. They could be going to the fourth floor.

As reported this week, large tracts of the ground floor concourse of the new Central Bank will also be made accessible to the public.

This new warm, cuddly era of Irish banking could take some getting used to.