Re: Re: Bank of Ireland, College Green

The venue clearly is not large enough for important national events such as a Bill O visit or a once in a generation decent soccer team return but has its uses for more niche events. The BoI has always been very good at supporting the arts in providing the interior of the space etc. Also to say that BoI is nationalised is somewhat untrue; the National Pensions Reserve Fund was in a position to buy preference shares yielding a mammoth dividend at a very low price; these if held will when the bank raises capital through disposals and a rights issue be worth considerably more than was paid for them. The UK Government is now in profit on RBS and Lloyds but Northern Rock like INBS and Anglo are unfortunately case studies that every finance student will be examined on hopefully for generations to come as an important lesson well learned.

All that can be expected of BoI is that they enter the 21st century on City Centre car-parking i.e. close the one at their College Green branch and turn the space into a public venue for suitable events and continue to manage the building in the sensitive manner that they have to date other than the rushed wheelchair access application which had as much forward thinking planning as the Anglo balance sheet.