The chairman of the EBS has said he and the board are not campaigning against the re-election of independent non-executive director Ethna Tinney. Colm Keena, Public Affairs Correspondent, reports.

However, Mark Moran says he and the board are asking members to support them, while Ms Tinney is asking members to support her. "Ultimately the decision is for the members," he said.

Ms Tinney has said she believes the way the society is conducting the campaign is "totally inappropriate".

Ms Tinney, a producer with Lyric FM who was appointed to the board in 2000 and reappointed with the board's approval in 2004, is not being supported for re-election at the annual general meeting on April 16th.

In a letter to members, Ms Tinney asked for their support and outlined three reasons why she said the board was not supporting her, including issues to do with corporate governance and "aspects of senior executive remuneration".

Mr Moran, in a letter accompanying Ms Tinney's, said Ms Tinney's reasons were "without foundation" and could only be interpreted as an attempt to create a platform for her election.

He said Ms Tinney had lost the confidence of the board because of her performance as a director, and he asked members to vote against Ms Tinney or to attend the agm.

The battle between the two sides looks set to intensify up to the vote. An internal EBS e-mail to branches, from regional manager Colin Grant, has been seen by The Irish Times. In the March 29th e-mail, Mr Grant urged staff to "complete your own proxy form supporting the board, ie opposing the re-election of Ethna Tinney to the board".

He also asked staff: "In your daily interaction with members, encourage them to use their vote, again don't offer advice but ask them to support the board."

Callers to EBS branches are being encouraged to fill in proxy forms.

The Irish Timeshas also seen a copy of a letter dated January 28th, 2004, from then chairman Brian Joyce to Ms Tinney, in which he states that an appraisal by fellow directors had found her performance to be below average and that if it did not improve, "it would be a resigning matter on your part".

On the basis that she agreed to this, he agreed to recommend that she be renominated for election to the board. Ms Tinney signed the letter under the word "agreed".

A subsequent assessment was carried out on board members in December 2004. Ms Tinney told The Irish Timesthat she was never shown her result from this assessment, nor was it discussed with her. No assessment has been carried out since.

Mr Moran told The Irish Timesthat this later assessment again resulted in Ms Tinney scoring "off average", but said he did not know if the matter had been raised with her by the then chairman.

Mr Moran said Ms Tinney had never made an issue at board level about the level of remuneration received by senior executives.