Bank of Ireland executives faced anger from shareholders at the bank's annual meeting in UCD in Dublin today.
Eggs were thrown at Bank of Ireland's chairman Pat Molloy and CEO Richie Boucher, though the eggs missed the two executives.
They were thrown by shareholder Gary Keogh from Blackrock, Co Dublin. He was escorted from the meeting by security. He also threw eggs at AIB's AGM in 2009.
Outside the meeting today he said throwing the eggs had helped 'bring his blood pressure down'.
Another shareholder, Mary Farrell, told Mr Molloy that she had been robbed, and that the group was robbing shareholders again this year. She said the board was guilty of elder abuse.
Bank of Ireland shareholders were also told that it wants to keep its College Green branch despite a desire by the State to acquire it. Chairman Pat Molloy said the Dublin city centre branch had 30,000 customers and was an important part of Bank of Ireland's bottom line.
Earlier, Mr Molloy told shareholders the outflow of deposits from the bank had stabilised. He said Ireland's sovereign debt crisis had caused withdrawals of deposits which were sensitive to downgrades by rating agencies.
Mr Molloy said the environment for the group remained difficult, but he said there were indications that the economy has stabilised.
He said that progress has been made to make BoI a more focused bank, but that but factors outside its control had affected the bank. He added that losses on loans transferred to NAMA were higher than anticipated.
Mr Molloy said the bank's costs had been reduced by 17% since 2008, with staff numbers down by 2,400 or 14% and further redundancy programmes are underway. He said the group's total loan book has been reduced by 20% since September 2008, and its strategy was to return to a more traditional retail structure.
