Change at top on way at Central Bank

Change is on the way at the Central Bank as the two top officials retire.

Interviews will take place shortly to select a successor to current director general Mr Padraig McGowan who is due to retire in mid-December. Speculation is also mounting about the likely successor to the governor, Mr Maurice O'Connell, to retire in April.

Deputy director general, Mr Liam Barron, who is in charge of financial markets and payments and securities settlements, is seen as the front runner for the post of director general. Other possible candidates include Mr Liam O'Reilly who is head of banking supervision and has an economics background. Other assistant directors general include Mr George Reynolds and Mr Michael Casey, also with economics backgrounds, and Mr Brian Halpin who is more business oriented.

Two key responsibilities of the director general are supervising financial institutions and the Bank's relationship with the European Central Bank.

The director general accompanies the governor to meetings of the council of the ECB although he is not allowed to cannot speak.

The position of governor is wide open. In the past, the outgoing secretary of the Department of Finance has generally been given the position of governor - the exception was Mr Maurice O'Connell who was second secretary at the Department of Finance.

The obvious choice was second secretary at the Department of Finance Mr Michael Tutty, but he has joined the European Investment Bank.

There has been speculation that the Minister for Finance Mr McCreevy could be reluctant to appoint from the Department and that he could look for a person with a published background in economics.

This could give Ireland a better chance of replacing Finnish central bank governor Ms Sirkka Hamalainen on the executive council of the European Central Bank when she retries in 2003.

If so, Mr McCreevy may be considering Trinity professor of economics, Mr Dermot McAleese, who is a previous director of the Central Bank. Professor of economics at UCD Brendan Walsh, a monetary economist, is another possibility. In the Department of Finance the front runners are Mr Tom Considine and Mr Noel O'Gorman who are the two most senior officials in the economics area. Dr Michael Somers, the chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency, has also been mentioned.