Cobra, if you let any bank in either Ireland or in New Zealand do the conversion they will royally screw you on the exchange rate.
That is the reason we use FOREX firms - they specialise in transferring cash between jursidictions, the rate that you get is pretty close to the interbank rate that banks charge each other and you will save hundreds of euro. Once set up, you transfer from your NZ bank in NZ dollars to the Transfermate NZ account, then Transfermate transfer the agreed equivalent euro value into your Irish account.