Can an Irish Citizen working foreign outside the EU zone, open an Irish Bank Account from foreign or online & how?

• Can an Irish Citizen working foreign outside the EU zone, open an Irish Bank Account from foreign or online & how?
  
  I am from Dublin, parents still have address in Ireland, but they are in a different foreign country so I have no one "on the ground in ireland" to do this, or collect post, folks get home 2 times a year for that.
  
  I am away in Asia 5 years now, & I closed my Irish accounts when I left, except a credit union account which is no use if I am foreign.
  
  I am not officially registered as non resident.
  I will not be back in Ireland for a few years, but I wanted to open an Irish bank account again for simple personal transactions, as I am moving to a new Asia country, & its very hard to get paypal.com & similar accounts due to asian countries some of them are not as trusted for online transactions.
  
  How can I open from foreign country an Irish bank personal bank account, & get online banking, an ATM card if possible & later, like I use in asia, a debit card which is a Visa. (basically same as a Visa card for online internet transaction, only you cannot use it unless you have funds in your account to cover the transaction. Other than that, no one knows the difference).
  
  Thats the kind of personal standard package I would be looking for. Standard current account in Ireland Dublin bank (perhaps smaller bank as BOI & AIB I hear do not seem to need the business any more, I hear NIB is good more interested in new business?)
  
  I do have a long standing, credit union account, its in good stead, but I only have a few euro in it, as I withdrew & stopped by monthly 100 euro for may years payment into it, but they said my name was good with them, its no use to me foreign a credit union account, which is based down the country, however maybe the manager would write me a fax of reference what I am know to them for over 30 years, & paid off a few loans early & successfully over the years & saved regular monthly into it for 12 years, up until i withdraw most of it 18 months back in 2007, its been no action on it since. But I suppose a letter of reference as testimonial to all of this, would be helpful, in opening an Irish account from foreign. there is no irish banks in the country I am in either, so any advice would be great please?
  
  also on a 2nd quesition, what about these online banks like EGG, i used to hear about?
  
  By the way, while in theory I have an address in ireland, (family home but I cannot get letters sent to there only a few times a year) so its too akward to use, I have no other address in Ireland, so how do I work around that please?
  
  Any ideas or help be great please.
  if you mail me FAO JOHN HOGAN to johnitcontractor (AT) yahoo.com
  Thanks
  John Hogan

  01 Nov 2008, 10:33 John Hogan