David Went feels like he's won the Lotto. Almost a year to the day since he took over at the helm at Irish Life he signed off the life assurer's merger with Irish Permanent - the largest corporate deal in the history of the State.

Clearly delighted to find himself as group chief executive of the €4.2 billion (£3.3 billion) financial services provider, he says his numbers have come up once again.

Mr Went's burning ambition at the moment is to make Irish Life & Permanent the leading financial services provider in Ireland.

"I feel there is a great opportunity for us, with this focus and with this team we will get where we want to get to," he says.

The State's largest life assurer joined with the biggest mortgage provider is a formidable force by any standards. But Irish Life and Irish Permanent have very different cultures which must be reconciled if Mr Went's ambitions are to be realised.

He argues that these differences are not insurmountable and suggests that both groups also share many similarities.

"The most important task we have now is for everyone to put on a single Irish Life & Permanent jersey and forget about either the Irish Life, the Irish Permanent or the Irish Progressive jerseys previously worn. People have to feel there is just one company," he says.

"Clearly that is something the chief executive has to do and this will be shared by the management. The starting point is to agree amongst the senior management team what is the vision of the business and how exactly we propose to manage it. Within a relatively few months people will realise what is the style and values of this organisation."

The Irish Life & Permanent group chief executive refuses to be drawn on the market-share targets that have been set for the new organisation but insists it will be making its presence felt in a very aggressive manner.

"We will have a market share of in excess of 20 per cent on the insurance side and a market share of 23 per cent on the mortgage side from the outset. The one thing we are really determined about is that the days of us standing by and watching people take our market is gone.

"Market share, and this sounds a bit defensive, is a bit meaningless as an indicator of success or failure because of the level of profit from the different products. Increasingly we are looking at certain segments of the market and are finding it difficult to get market share in some areas, but we are certainly not prepared to see our market share eroded where we have a decent share now and where we can make a decent profit. We have let people eat our lunch for far too long," Mr Went warns.

Irish Permanent has long expressed its interest in adding the State-owned ICC Bank to its operations and Mr Went says the new group will be among the potential bidders when the Government puts the bank out to tender.

"The attraction of ICC is its small and medium-sized business but it really does depend on the price. We are not prepared to pay any price for it or take any risk with our funding or our ratings because our core business in the personal financial sector is far too important to us."

Analysts will also be keeping their eye on what the new entity will do to expand into the money transmission and current account market, something which will have to be addressed if it is to become a dominant force in the personal banking sector.

Mr Went says this is certainly an area where Irish Life & Permanent is weak and will be reviewing its options. The most obvious solution would be to acquire a bank which already has direct access to the clearing system, such as Ulster Bank or National Irish Bank.

"Clearly if Ulster Bank were to become available we would be interested but that's a decision for its owners, National Westminster, to make and whether they make that decision or not is entirely up to them. We would also be interested in National Irish Bank but clearly on its own NIB would not be sufficient for us to regard as the end if you like. We would probably have to look at something else alongside it.".

Equally if such an acquisition does not materialise it's not the end of the world. "We also have an opportunity to look imaginatively at what we could do with an electronic current account," he suggests.

Acquisitions are not his top priority at the moment, he stresses, and he is anxious not to create a perception that all of his energies are focused on doing the next deal.

With merger mania now firmly taking a grip throughout Europe, Irish Life & Permanent has been mentioned as a possible takeover target itself in a few years, offering an international player exposure to the rapidly growing Irish market.

Mr Went however does not expect to receive any such approaches for some time, if at all. "We don't have an absolute imperative that says we must remain independent. The key issue is what is best for the shareholders and what is best for the staff. If someone comes along today when the share price is say around £7 and was to offer £20 for us then so be it the shareholders would probably take it.

"Our job is to run this business just as well as we can because if we run it well there won't be the opportunity for management arbitrage. The reason takeovers happen is because people believe they can run the business better than somebody else. If we run it very well to its optimum capacity then that won't happen," he says.

His view is based on his belief that despite rumours that have linked international banks such as Deutsche and Lloyd's TSB to AIB, Irish banks are someway down their shopping list.

"I would be surprised if people were looking at Ireland first in terms of a European consolidation. They are trying to consolidate their core market and spread out gradually. The Germans are focused on getting into France, then they are interested in getting into Benelux, then Spain and Italy. Consolidation will have happened on the continent and may well spread into the UK before it hits Ireland."

Apart from driving Irish Life & Permanent's progress, Mr Went states that he doesn't have any ambitions. "I've been very very lucky. I love what I'm doing. I think I've won the Lotto. I'm thinking of selling my numbers."