Acquiring ICC Bank will be a major priority for Irish Life and Permanent in the next few months, the chairman of Irish Permanent, Mr John Bourke has said.

He was speaking after the final annual general meeting of the company, which is expected to officially merge with Irish Life shortly.

He said neither Irish Permanent nor Irish Life currently had a "corporate banking arm" and were eager to acquire one. "We simply cannot build up that kind of operation on our own, so ICC would be an ideal vehicle," Mr Bourke added.

He said the new combined company hoped to receive information about the sale process within four to six weeks.

The new company would spend its first number of weeks bringing Irish Life and Irish Permanent's life assurance divisions together. After that Irish Life products would be introduced to Irish Permanent branches around the State, he said.

He added that due to overlaps in their operations about 100 jobs would be lost, although the main problem at the moment was "retaining staff rather than losing them".

He told the meeting that Irish Life and Irish Permanent would continue to trade separately and would be the names "you see on the high street". From Irish Permanent's point of view the merger would mean a series of new products becoming "available to our customers".

On the issue of house prices, Mr Bourke said increasing supply was the answer and not financial institutions loosening their lending criteria. While prices were high at present, purchasers were finding ways to raise funds. "A large number of people are receiving help from their parents, who effectively give them a piece of their inheritance early," he said.

He described the meeting as the "end of an era" and said it was the first a.g.m. in the company's history when not a single shareholder asked a question.