A force to be reckoned with at the EBS?

In common with most lenders, the EBS (Educational Building Society) is beating its breast in advance of its AGM on May 29th in the Burlington Hotel.

As is par for the course now, drastically reduced executive salaries are the order of the day, as is “greater communication” with members.

All that has come too late for one Martin Donnellan, a member since 1974 and now offering himself for election to the board of EBS. Donnellan, of course, distinguished himself as a member of another organisation, the Garda Síochána, where he rose to assistant commissioner, serious crime and played no little part in the force coming to grips with the crime wave.

His challenge to the Minister for Justice made legal history when he contested and lost his case against rules of compulsory retirement at a certain age. However, he is now one of only three external candidates among the six eligible for election to the EBS board and his manifesto contains some telling declarations.

“I am not the ego-driven campaigning type – rather I prefer to present my issues maturely,” declares Donnellan who goes on to criticise the EBS’s performance, or lack of, in recent years.

Citing his defence of the small saver, he wants a reduction in the number of executive directors and, tellingly, promises to hold accountable “those responsible for any financial loss incurred by the Society”.

Given those losses amounted to around €110 million, of which around €69 million was in development finance, for which read speculative loans, should certain senior executives be quaking in their Gucci boots? We only ask because, as is oft proven, you can take the man out of the force, but you cannot take the force out of the man.