Irish Life & Permanent chief executive Mr David Went has said the group would consider National Irish Bank (NIB) as a potential acquisition.

He said that while the group didn't comment on acquisitions it had to factor in developments in the Irish banking market.

"There are not too many buses on the Irish financial services bus route. You would expect us to have a look," he said.

Mr Went said Irish Life & Permanent's strategy was not acquisition-led or dependent on it, but that NIB could provide opportunities.

"It would give us another customer base to maximise the opportunities there. We have done this in the past with Irish Life and Irish Permanent and TSB.

"We have demonstrated that we are very good at maximising opportunities at what might be an under-developed customer base," he said.

NIB's parent, National Australia Bank, has hired corporate finance specialists Lazard to advise on how best to extract value from its UK and Irish banks.

In addition to NIB, it owns Northern Bank, the market leader in Northern Ireland, the Clydesdale in Scotland and the Yorkshire Bank. This exercise is expected to lead to a sale of NAB's European banks.

Mr Went also called on the Government to be more proactive in addressing Ireland's pensions problems and urged it to consider facilitating the switching of funds from maturing Special Savings Incentive Accounts (SSIAs) from 2006 to pensions.

Yesterday, the group announced the appointment of Ms Danuta Gray (46), chief executive officer of O2 Ireland, to its board of directors.

Irish Life & Permanent chairwoman Ms Gillian Bowler said she looked forward to her contribution to the work of the board.