The Irish Permanent managed to hold one of the shortest annual general meeting's in its history - well, technically anyway. The chairman, Mr John Bourke, managed to formally wrap up the meeting after just thirty five minutes, in one of the most straightforward meetings during his tenure. He opened the meeting by telling the more than 200 shareholders about the "excellent" year the Irish Permanent had achieved. Its balance sheet has now increased to above £6 billion, and all sections of it business have performed well, Mr Bourke said.

He also reminded shareholders about how well they had been doing financially. "Your shares have risen by nearly four pounds since the time of our annual general meeting last year," he pointed out, presumably for the benefit of those who had not noticed how much they had been enriched by the company's success. And then there was the further good news that Irish Permanent has recommended a special 25 per cent increase in shareholder's dividends. Mr Bourke announced that as 6.7 million shares have never been claimed, these shares will not now be issued by the company. This special increase in dividend reflects the fact that Irish Permanent is owned by fewer shareholders, he said, with those who failed to claim their entitlement now no longer eligible to claim their shares.

Referring to the very high profile court battle between the company and its former managing director, Dr Edmund Farrell, the chairman said it had decided to settle this action just a few days into the hearing, "in the interests of the company and of its shareholders."

Under the terms of the settlement, Irish Permanent had to pay its own legal costs of more than £350,000, while Dr Farrell agreed to pay the company £150,000. Irish Permanent failed, however, to recover Dr Farrell's Foxrock residence which it had been seeking. It was estimated to be worth £2 million.

The chairman said it had created a modest reserve against its potential legal costs, and having also recovered some funds under the terms of the settlement, he claimed it had the net effect of achieving a "small gain" for Irish Permanent.

His audience remained quite subdued throughout, although the thorny issue of the widows and widowers who lost out on their entitlement to free shares when the former building society came to the market, was once again raised. One woman asked whether the company intended to make some financial gesture to those who had been disenfranchised, in the light of its financial success. Mr Bourke said that, while the company wished to be in a position to do something for these members, it had received legal advice which stated that this would impossible. "We are very sorry that this is the case. The only good thing to come from it is that the Government has now changed the law and this will never happen again," he explained.

With no further questions coming from the floor, Mr Bourke closed the meeting, prompting many shareholders to drift outside to enjoy the company's hospitality.

One shareholder, however, had other ideas. He accused the chairman of failing to allow questions on anything other than had been proposed on the agenda, insisting that he wanted to raise the issue of DIRT - namely Deposit Interest Retention Tax - and how the society had applied it to its special savings accounts. After some consternation, the board attempted to answer his question. It took another 20 minutes before the chairman once again drew the meeting to a close for another year.