The Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) won’t go public and will stand back from the current consolidation mania, which it wisely views as a fad that may be regretted later.

Chief Executive Tom Healy said today that the exchange is too small for an initial public offering, adding it was in no hurry to merge with anyone. “We’re probably too small and we don’t need the money,” Healy told observers at a financial markets conference.

Healy also confirmed that the exchange had not been approached over a takeover. “A corporate event is a good bit of time into the future … some years,” said Healy. One wonders if anyone outside Ireland knows of its existence.

“We outsource our technology from Deutsche Borse. This buys us some time,” he said. “We can afford to watch and see how it all shakes out.”

Now there’s a model that the LSE could follow.