Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Fielding and Mr. Sheridan for appearing before the committee. There will be plenty of time after the first round of questions for further questions to be asked.

Everybody wants the banks to operate a sustainable business model. We also want a healthy level of competition in the market. Any outside observer following the committee's proceedings will want to know what is happening and what will happen in the future to make things better.

I would like to put my first question to the officials from the Central Bank. From the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises, some 77% of banking in the State is carried out in AIB and Bank of Ireland. In earlier correspondence Mr. Fielding spoke about a duopoly and made the point that the market here was very restrained. What level of oversight does the Central Bank have in this regard? Some 77% of the country's small businesses do their business with two banks that have been capitalised by the State, are trying to operate independently again and looking at charges as a means of increasing their profit lines on their balance sheets.