That represents a 250pc increase on last year’s dividend and a welcome return to regular – and increasing – capital distributions for shareholders that have been waiting a long time for improved returns.

But savers are going to have to wait a little longer, it seems, to get any kind of return on the money they have lodged with the bank.

Even though the European Central Bank deposit rate now sits at 2.5pc - well above the sub-zero level where it languished for years – Bank of Ireland hasn’t budged on what it pays on savings accounts.

Retail depositors are getting close to nothing, mainly because Bank of Ireland is flush with customer cash.

Customer deposits have hit €99bn, €6bn higher than the end of 2021, as households and small businesses continued to sock away surpluses. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of new customers from KBC and Ulster Bank opened new accounts.

With just €72.6bn in loans on the other side of the balance sheet, it could be argued the bank has too much liquidity. In that situation, it doesn’t make financial sense to pay on deposits, especially with so little competition in the market.

But that doesn’t make it exactly fair to savers, especially since their artificially low rates are partly financing the windfall that shareholders are reaping.

In simple terms, it works like this: Irish banks are keeping deposit rates low, but increasing lending rates, which widens interest margins and boosts profits. They’re also enhancing returns by depositing customer cash they hold for free with the ECB, which then pays them 2.5pc.

As a result, Bank of Ireland’s net interest income rose 12pc last year, prompting O’Grady to upgrade the bank’s medium-term profitability targets.

And because things are moving operationally in the right direction at the bank, with a strong market position and a robust profit outlook, the bank has pledged to distribute even more surplus capital as the rewards roll in.

This year’s proposed dividend and buyback package is the equivalent of 25pc of the bank’s statutory profit. The bank’s target is to pay at least 40pc, with special distributions when conditions (and regulators) allow.

Shareholders obviously love this policy. Bank of Ireland stock was one of the top performers on the Irish Stock Exchange yesterday, rising 2.44pc.

And a lot of those shareholders – 13pc at last count – are retail investors rather than big institutions, so ordinary people are benefiting directly from O’Grady’s flaithúlach turn.

O’Grady said he values depositors but is assessing the rate environment carefully. The bank’s official position is that all rates are under review. But for now, the plan is clearly shareholders first.