THE former chairwoman of the Fine Gael Commission on Reform and Restructuring, marketing executive Ms Gary Joyce, will be appointed chairwoman of the State owned ACCBank today.
Ms Joyce (38) replaces Mr Dan McGing who has been chairman of the bank since December 1987.
The Irish Times has learned that three new appointments to the ACC board by the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, will be announced at the annual general meeting of the bank today.
The other new board members are Mr John O'Reilly, an analyst with Davy stockbrokers and Mr Seamus Mallon, a solicitor from Castleblaney, Co Monaghan.
The new appointments were agreed by the Government's programme managers and approved by the Cabinet yesterday.
The three directors who were eligible for re-appointment this year were not reappointed. They were Mr McGing, an accountant and consultant, Mr Robbie Kelleher, head of equity research at Davy and Mr Chris Wall, an executive with the Welcome pharmaceutical company and a close constituency associate of Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern.
The new appointments mean the number of directors at ACC will remain at eight. Two directors Mr Quinn attempted to remove from the board in 1995 remain in place - Fianna Fail councillors Mr Jimmy Curtis of Co Wexford and Mr Michael Smith of Cavan. The other directors are chief executive Mr John McCloskey, the representative of the Minister for Finance Ms Ann Nolan and Kerry Co op chairman Mr Michael Hanrahan.
Born in Kilkenny and brought up in Arklow, Co Wicklow, Ms Joyce went into the advertising business in 1980 a few years after graduating from University College Dublin with a degree in social science.
In 1985 she set up an advertising company Underline with a partner. Underline's name was subsequently changed to Dimension. In 1991, advertising and communications group, McConnells, bought 60 per cent of Genesis, the holding company for Dimension. The company provides a range of marketing and promotion services.
In 1993, Ms Joyce was appointed by Mr John Bruton to chair the commission to examine the structure and organisation of the Fine Gael party.
ACC reported an 8 per cent rise in underlying profits to £13.2 million for 1995. Announcing the results at the end of March, ACC called on its Government share holder to provide more capital that the bank could continue to expand its loan book.
The future of the bank is under consideration as part of the Government's examination of the banking sector. As chairman Mr McGing made no secret of his opposition to a merger of ACC with, the State owned ICC bank as part of a plan favoured by the Minister for Finance to develop the so called third banking force.
The appointment of Ms Joyce follows the recent appointment of Mr Phil Flynn as chairman of ICC. Mr Flynn, a prominent trade unionist and the general secretary of the IMPACT trade union, replaced Mr Ted MacRedmond, whose term had been completed.
The new appointees take over key positions at the State banks as the Government parties appear unable to agree on the future of the banks and of the TSB Bank.
