Analysis: Mr Michael Buckley may believe, as his chairman said yesterday, that "perpetual perfection in human affairs" is not something we can aspire to.
But in the wake of the latest crisis to hit AIB, the bank at last seems to have recognised the need to set the bar a little higher.
Yesterday it unveiled measures designed to improve its much-criticised corporate culture and make it more open, honest and accountable.
However, it must still deal with the final report on overcharging, and the investigation into the Faldor offshore investment affair, which will delay any attempts by the bank to put the issues behind it.
Yesterday's report shows that, despite the extensive reviews and reforms carried out in the wake of the Rusnak affair, AIB's command, control and communications systems are back in the firing line just two years on.
Although Mr Buckley was keen to stress that an independent analysis of the bank found that "AIB's culture is strong, not fundamentally flawed", the measures announced yesterday suggest that the bank has at last accepted that the series of crises afflicting it may not be down to just bad luck.
Mr Buckley admitted yesterday that the review of the bank's culture - undertaken by Dr Peter Scott-Morgan of consulting firm The Concours Group - found that in some of the bank's strengths lay its weaknesses.
The "can-do" attitude of those in AIB, their self-dependency and a culture where people spend much of their working lives with the bank have their downsides, he conceded.
"There is too much self-censorship in the bank. We need to have more honest communication flowing up and down the organisation, and we have more work to do on that," Mr Buckley said.
While measures to improve the handling of customer complaints and increase automation to avoid human error are welcome, two of the measures announced yesterday in response to recent events could prove particularly important.
In a break from its recent past, the bank plans to seek and consider external candidates to replace Mr Buckley when he steps down as chief executive in 2006. Bank of Ireland may rue its decision to go outside of the ranks to appoint Mr Mike Soden but many observers feel such a move is long overdue at AIB, a company with interests in Britain, the US and Poland as well as the Republic.
"It's a decision the chairman made the minute he arrived in the door," Mr Buckley said yesterday. "It's important to benchmark internal candidates against the best of the market."
The bank's chairman, Mr Dermot Gleeson, put it slightly differently. "We need to find the best player, man or woman, wherever they are to be found."
Strengthening the provisions for whistleblowers within AIB is also a key move in a bid to break the culture of non-reporting in the bank.
Mr Buckley said yesterday that, when the bank started to "tear up the floorboards on all of our charges" as part of the current investigation, it made it clear to staff that it wanted to know of anything that was of concern.
"I hope that has been a culture- changing event," he said.
It may take more than one thorough trawl to overhaul the culture of an institution with such deep roots as AIB, but it is at least a step in the right direction.
