Irish Life has signalled that it may look outside the company for a property investment director to succeed Sean O'Brien who has jumped ship to join estate agents Insignia Richard Ellis Gunne.

Though O'Brien has had a top class team behind him, most of them will probably be considered either too young or too inexperienced to take over what is easily the most important institutional slot in the property investment market. Should Irish Life decide to buy in an experienced player, it will have to look again at its package which apparently includes a salary of no more than around £80,000 plus bonus and car. Most of the big names in the private end of the investment market probably earn at least twice that figure and none of them has ever had to handle anything like the same scale of business. O'Brien bought a whopping £600 million worth of investment properties in just over five years at a time when the market was hopping, showing average annual returns of around 25 per cent.

His announcement that he is to leave Irish Life will have led to a few sleepless nights for a handful of estate agents who earned a small fortune in retainers for bringing investment properties to Irish Life. These same agents will now be in direct competition with O'Brien for investment deals. Interesting scenario.