The Minister for Finance has appointed four members to the board of ACCBank. They include Mr John Greely, an accountant with a practice at Naas, Co Kildare; lecturer Ms Finola Kennedy; former Institute of Chartered Accountants' president Mr Maurice Tempany; and ACC chief executive Mr Colm Darling.

The appointments arise from vacancies created by the collapse of merger talks between ACC and TSB Bank. A new board had been appointed to oversee the merger which included TSB chief executive Mr Harry Lorton and former ACC chairman Mr Matthew Barrett. Former ACC chief executive Mr John McCloskey retired this year, as did another director, Mr Seamus Mallon.

Mr Greely (58) is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland and of the Institute of Taxation. Ms Kennedy (58) is a lecturer in economics at the Institute of Public Administration. She was a member of the Commission for the Status of Women between 1990 and 1993 and is a member of the Housing Finance Agency.

Mr Tempany (69) is a former partner at Ernst & Young, while Mr Darling joins the board in place of Mr McCloskey.

Former NCB Stockbrokers' managing director Mr Padraic O'Connor chairs the ACC board. It is in the process of implementing a restructuring plan which will include the closure of branches and switching the business mix towards higher margin activities to attract a buyer for the bank.

Its plans will include the closure of 10 Dublin branches and a major reorganisation of its 50 rural branches. It is also seeking voluntary redundancies from its 650 staff.

The implementation of this restructuring has created difficulties with some trade unions representing the workforce. This week, SIPTU called off threatened industrial action scheduled for next week following intensive discussions at the Labour Relations Commission. Both sides have agreed to enter a partnership process on the changes required to prepare the State bank for privatisation.

Staff want greater consultation on changes and an employee share option scheme for 14.9 per cent of the company. This would work out at around £75,000 (€95,000) per employee.