DES Doran says he has two main priorities during his year as chairman of the Irish Association of Investment Managers (IAIM). One is to highlight the benefits that IAIM member companies provide for their customers. The other is to highlight the "major contribution" of the investment industry to the funding of Irish enterprise.

Mr Doran, who runs Standard Life's Irish investment operations, accepts that the investment industry has failed to get these messages across to the general public who make up the industry's customer base. He believes, however, that the industry does not get the recognition it deserves especially with regard to the contribution it makes to the development of Irish industry.

"The investment industry is an easy target, it is seen as investing large sums of money outside the country, but people for get about what is invested in Ireland. I'm not sure yet how we can get our message across but we need to do it." He concedes, however, that will take time. "It can't be done overnight."

He also disputes that there is a reluctance by the industry to get involved in infrastructural development. Speaking with his Standard Life hat on, he says: "Any time we have been approached about a project, we have looked, but we are not getting the approaches to invest.

"Look at National Toll Roads, they have made a lot of proposals that we would love to have supported - the port tunnel, the disposal site, but they have been turned down.

"There seems to be a belief that the State can fund cheaper - I would say that we in private enterprise are better at risk control and therefore we might be able to do things more efficiently - the risk -v- reward motivation means that sometimes things can be done more quickly and tightly than the State can do."

Mr Doran also rejects the criticism that the investment industry is happy to invest in big companies, but reluctant to support small developing companies.

"There is a size of company that it is simply not worth an institution's time, nor is it appropriate for them to invest £25,000 here or £50,000 there but serious, projects have no problems raising money.

While personally not totally convinced about the merits of the Irish Stock Exchange's proposed Developing Companies Market, Mr Doran says emphatically that the IAIM "will support any market which improves the flow of new companies".

He concedes that it is a serious concern that only three companies of any consequence have taken stock market listings in the past five years - Greencore, Irish Life and Irish Permanent.

"The problem is that the bigger private companies don't want to go public and that's a fact of life we have to live with. Look at Musgraves, Hugh Mackeown says that he doesn't need to go public for funds and if that's the case he is absolutely correct. Companies should only come to the market if they need to raise honey. not just for the sake of going public.

One other problem is the reluctance of many medium and large companies to subject themselves to the scrutiny that a market listing brings. "We can't simply change the attitude of many companies of `I don't want the grief of having outside share-holders'."

Mr Doran also stoutly defends the IAIM's decision to introduce a code of corporate governance that omits some of the more controversial parts of the Cadbury and Greenbury guidelines relating to directors' pay.

"People tend to forget that the IAIM had published its guidelines before Cadbury reported," says Mr Doran.

On his association's willingness for public companies to allow a simple aggregation of directors' salaries and not the banded breakdown required in Britain, he says: "If I thought for a moment that it would do anything to improve returns to shareholders and our investors, I would be in favour."

Mr Doran agrees, however, that there are times when institutional shareholders have to show their teeth and concedes that it was Standard Life that was one of the main opponents of what was seen as an exceptionally generous bonus package for Smurfit chairman Michael Smurfit. That bonus package was subsequently altered and made more demanding after some fund managers withheld their proxies. "The company clarified the situation and put people's minds at rest," says Mr Doran on that episode. Overall, he warns that "there is an obsession with what people get paid."

But there is one area of their business where Mr Doran accepts that the investment industry has a serious image problem - when it comes to selling its products. "Generally, Irish product providers give pretty good value for money, people tend to forget that intermediaries' commissions in Ireland are usually less than they are in Britain. But we have to watch our costs like a hawk."

Mr Doran agrees that the Taylor episode has been a very damaging one for the investment industry but warns against over-reaction. "The problem in Ireland is that a lot of people want to do business in cash and don't want records kept. How can anybody regulate for that?"

He concedes that the loss of St Vincent de Paul funds in the Taylor collapse does show that the current regulatory situation is not adequate. "It's too early to say what needs to be done, but if people deal with reputable advisers, the chances of things going wrong for them are miniscule."

Overall, Mr Doran says that it will be a difficult year for the IAIM. "The question of regulation will take a lot of time, and we will also have to do a lot of work on the funding of public service pensions and the review of the gilt market."