Irish Life and Permanent is enjoying a very successful year so far with its banking and life and pensions business growing strongly, according to chairwoman Gillian Bowler.

Addressing shareholders at its annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday, Ms Bowler said Permanent TSB has been winning 1,500 new current accounts a week since the beginning of the year with lending also running well ahead.

"We've had a really good start to the year and the renewed momentum that we saw across our businesses in the second half of 2005 has continued strongly into this year," she said, despite increased competition as other retail banks responded to Permanent TSB's free banking initiative.

"On the life and pensions side, we have had a tremendous start to the year in respect of sales of pension, investment and protection policies and this, of course, is before any impact from SSIA accounts," Ms Bowler added.

The more than 200 shareholders who attended the meeting were broadly happy, and a few were delighted to offer their congratulations to the company's board for its successful performance.

Others took the opportunity to ask about issues ranging from potential stock splits to whether Irish Life and Permanent would be making donations to any of the political parties in the run-up to the next general election.

Ms Bowler assured them firmly that the financial institution would not be donating any funds to politicians' coffers.

The board is also continuing to examine whether there is any merit in a stock split now that the shares are trading at close to €20 on the Irish Stock Exchange.

"We will continue to review it but I don't think there is any merit in doing it now," she explained.

One shareholder asked about the impact of the latest downturn in the stock markets on SSIA accounts as they begin to mature from the end of the month. "Some have suffered while others are still doing well," Ms Bowler said.

She also stressed that the short-term volatility had left stock markets generally back at January levels.

"Account holders don't have to rush into doing anything at the moment," Ms Bowler said. "They can switch into a cash fund if they are worried."

The company didn't repossess any homes last year, she said in reply to another question.

Ms Bowler was also very positive about the outlook for the Irish property market, saying that she believed house prices would grow by 10 per cent this year.

She said she was satisfied that the fundamentals supporting the housing market remained intact. "I expect that over the next year or two, the rate of house price growth will slowly decline to single figures," she told shareholders.

The group will issue a more detailed pre-close trading statement in a few weeks.