After sponsoring the squad for 13 years, the bank's parent, Irish Life & Permanent, has decided to call it a day on the 1m a year deal. The period has been packed with rugby triumphs, but IL&P chief executive David Went is matter-of-fact about parting ways. "We've been good for the game and it's been good for us, " he says. "It was good while it lasted."

He is unlikely to be so emotionally detached next year when the time comes to part company with IL&P, an organisation with his fingerprints all over it. He masterminded the merger that created the 5bn bank-cuminsurance group in 1999 and followed it up with the acquisition of TSB Bank in 2001.

Went's time as the longestserving bank boss in the business comes to an end at the 2007 annual general meeting when he will retire having just turned 60. He bows out on a high note.

Profits broke the 500m barrier for the first time in 2005, and the group is targeting more double-digit earnings growth this year.

Shareholders, including more than 130,000 customers who got shares for free when Irish Permanent demutualised in 1994, have generally been rewarded for loyalty.

Their shares are now worth more than 18 a piece, a gain of 3 since last summer, and there could be more to come, with speculation last week that German insurance giant Allianz may make an offer for the 30% stake IL&P holds in its Irish business.

If there are clouds on the horizon, look to the bank. Permanent TSB handed out 6.3bn to Irish house buyers last year, an increase of 28% on 2004, but operating profits only nudged ahead 5% to 148m. With European interest rates finally on an upward curve, the opportunity should be provided to repair damage done to margins in recent years, but this does prove difficult when aggressive young upstarts such as Bank of Scotland (Ireland) have IL&P's 18bn mortgage book in their sights.

Competitors have been dangling cash inducements and deep discounts, and this is forcing Permanent TSB to hold back some of the recent rate hikes as it battles to keep existing business. Went is scathing about the cut-price strategy championed by Bank of Scotland boss Mark Duffy.

"If you want to run a banking business, and make bugger all money out of it, then that's the way to go about it, " he says. "You can't count on a loss leader for very long."

Rather than buying into Duffy's promises, Went suggests home owners take a look at the track record of Halifax Bank of Scotland in its home market. "Duffy suggests this squeaky clean image, he seems to see himself as a whiter-than-white virgin, " he says. "When you look at HBOS in the UK, you see the reality is quite different."

The irony is that Bank of Scotland is a tied agent of Irish Life for mortgage protection insurance, so every home loan it writes has spinoff benefits for Went. "That's probably why I should wish them all the luck in the world - but maybe not too much luck, " he says.

In the fight for new mortgage business, Permanent TSB is one of several lenders prepared to lend the full price through a 100% mortgage.

First-time buyers make up 22% of the bank's new lending.

Went says about half borrow more than 92%, but refuses to reveal how many borrow the lot.

"These mortgages are not as noxious or toxic as some people make out, " he says.

"People are still taking money from parents as they always have done. But instead of just having the four walls, 100% mortgages mean you can have carpets as well."

Went is sceptical about recent comments by AIB boss Eugene Sheehy that 100% mortgages are in the interests neither of customers nor of the banks that sell them. AIB may not openly promote these loans as aggressively as other banks, but Went believes it does not send customers away empty handed. "I'd be very surprised if they were not doing pretty well their share of the overall market, " he says.

Costs are also a problem at Permanent TSB and, with the TSB acquisition bedded down, this is an issue that Went has pledged to tackle in 2006. The cost-income ratio is stubbornly high at 62% but it drops to a more competitive 56% when insurance sales made through Permanent TSB branches are taken into account.

The other pillar of IL&P's business - life insurance - had a bumper year in 2005 especially in the core retail market. Using the industry's standard yardstick, annual premium equivalent, sales reached 388 last year, a 25% increase on 2004. This secures the group's position as the industry kingpin, allowing it to pull ahead of Bank of Ireland Life which had been breathing down IL&P's neck with an APE of just under 350m.

Pensions are the core product, and the potential is enormous if the government agrees to bankroll incentives aimed at encouraging retirement saving by people on lower incomes. Went betrays no irritation at government dithering on the issue, but calls for government to do a lot more to encourage more people to avail of existing tax breaks.

"You can't turn on the telly without seeing a government ad telling us to wash our hands more often yet they spend next to nothing on promoting pensions, " he says.

The boss of the country's biggest pensions provider also believes the government must crack down harder on the thousands of employers who are openly flouting the law by failing to provide access to some type of pensions vehicle for their workers.

Went's own circumstances are rather different. On top of a pay cheque of over 1m a year, IL&P puts 200,000 a year into his pension. When you factor in the string of non-executive directorships that are sure to come his way after he packs in the day job, that adds up to a very comfortable retirement.