AIB chairman Richard Pym has said that Ireland is in a unique position to benefit from the "folly" of the Brexit vote in the UK.
In a speech in Kilkenny today, Mr Pym said the Brexit campaign had been led by "a group of chancers and opportunists".
He said that Ireland is open for business, as it anchored in the European Union, and is a very attractive location for inward investment. "Even after Brexit we forecast growth of over 3% next year", Mr Pym noted.
The AIB chairman described himself as a "British citizen, chairing an Irish bank with a family in America", adding that he spreads his time between three counties and pays taxes in two.
He made his comments during a speech at the Association of European Journalists Congress in Kilkenny today.
Mr Pym said the UK government wants a period of reflection behind closed doors as it went into the Brexit referendum with "scandalously" no preparation and is now trying to figure something out.
"Business is crying out for clarity," he stated, adding that some have been surprised by the continued growth in the UK economy.
"I think of it like one of those Road Runner cartoons, you know where Wile E Coyote is chasing Road Runner, and continues the chase over the edge of the cliff. Momentum carries the creature forward for a time before gravity has its inevitable victory," he told today's gathering.
The AIB chairman predicted that the "old and the poor" will be the ones most badly hit by the economic effects of Brexit in the UK. The rising inflation rates will be disproportionately high on their spending on food, fuel and clothing, he explained.
Mr Pym said that while he was optimistic on the Irish economy in the long term, he was concerned about Northern Ireland's economy.
He said the state sector there is large, while the private sector is small. The Northern Ireland economy is also dependent on subsidies from London, while the politics are complex, he said.
"With the depreciation of the British pound, there is now an incentive for the most economically active of Northern Ireland citizens to work in the Repubic and remit their euro earnings home to the North," he said.
He also said that if Britain continues with its "madness" then Ireland will need to deliver infrastructure and housing improvements to encourage UK firms to relocate and encourage even more FDI into Ireland.
