A large hierarchy of the Dirac masses can result in a small hierarchy for the low energy masses of the active neutrinos. This can happen even if the Majorana masses of right-handed neutrinos are all equal. A realistic description of the observed neutrino masses and mixing can be obtained starting from a large hierarchy in the Dirac masses. A large mixing for solar neutrinos results from the neutrino sector. The small value of the MNS matrix element U_e3 is a natural consequence of the scheme. The masses of the two lighter neutrinos are related to the solar neutrino mixing angle: \mu ₁/\mu ₂ =  tan²\theta _\odot .

PACS numbers: 14.60.Pq