Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their attendance. I have a few questions and will start with AIB. I am a customer myself with AIB. Whether that is a conflict of interest when I ask questions I do not know. I must start on a negative with regard to AIB. I live in a peninsula in west Cork where AIB had branches in Ballydehob and in Schull, both of which have been closed. The nearest branch for many of my constituents is about 35 km or 40 km away. This was an extremely negative move by AIB. It may have been somewhat forgivable to close one branch but to close two was a fatal blow to our community. Since then people have been moving into the bigger towns to do their banking and this has had a knock-on effect for businesses locally and these communities have suffered shop closures. AIB is providing a travelling bank but it is not acceptable to try and do business on different days. Most people do not register as to what day it is open and go in to the car park and it is not there or whatever. It is a big loss and it was a huge blow. It is a heavy criticism of AIB that it would have such poor insight into the knock-on effect the branch closures would have on the local community. We talk about the survival of local businesses but how can they survive if they do not have a bank to do any business? I address this criticism also towards the Bank of Ireland, as it does not have a presence on that peninsula either. I must stand up for the constituents who elected me. Closure of branches continues to be a huge issue and I would like to see if AIB or Bank of Ireland are going to address this situation, not in that particular peninsula but in many more communities where they are closing banks. Is the travelling bank our future? If it is then it is a bleak future because a person cannot do proper business in a travelling bank.

That being said, it is a difficult time and maybe the witnesses could elaborate further on how they are helping farmers through the current cashflow crisis being experienced by many farmers. There have been massive issues with grain, as well as massive losses in the dairy and suckler sectors. These three sectors are coming under massive pressure this year, more so than previous years. I would love to know how the banking sector is addressing it. Discussions with farmers are hugely important but how are problems being addressed on the ground? The same goes for businesses in rural Ireland. They are still finding it difficult to survive. We say there is recovery. There may be recovery in bigger cities but it is not feeding its way back into our rural towns. I would like to know how the banks are delivering for those businesses and individuals who try to start up businesses. To be fair, AIB did speak about its backing for the Skibbereen Ludgate project. There is an excellent manager in Skibbereen so it is easy to know why a project like that is working. There was a big digital weekend in the Ludgate Hub in Skibbereen recently, so continued work there would be very much welcomed.

We speak about electronic transactions and these can lead to a lot of frustration among our older people and sometimes it is forgotten that they are not able to use the computer or the smart phone. Sometimes when one goes to a bank branch now the customer is advised to press buttons, and many older people find it very difficult. I would appreciate if the witnesses could take that into consideration.

With regard to An Post and the Irish Postmasters Union, the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, has appeared before this committee. While he is a man who would fight for the people of rural Ireland and has done so for many years, I am worried about some of his comments about introducing travelling post offices. That would be an absolute disaster, such as the one we are living in. I see that as a backdoor system towards closing post offices. Any proper-minded Deputy would be totally opposed to that measure. I do not know if there is a group coming up with these proposals for the saving of post offices but if that is its first proposal, I know the direction in which it is steering. Am I correct in saying there is talk of plans for post offices being 15 km apart? If that is where we are going, then we are going down a very bad road. We talk about being able to deliver driver licences and car tax but this talk has been going on for many years but with no movement whatsoever. That is the area where post offices need to be moving into and not talking about travelling post offices. Many people who are social welfare recipients are receiving letters telling them they can have their benefit paid electronically. That is damaging towards the post office network and has serious implications. Credit unions have been delivering for their local communities.

We are lucky to have one in our peninsula, which has fairly reasonable rates. I ask all the institutions represented to look at their local farming and business communities because they continue to struggle. It is a difficult time in rural Ireland for farmers, publicans and shop owners. If we begin to remove services, close banks and introduce mobile post offices, we will go down a very dangerous and slippery slope in rural Ireland, which is the issue we are discussing today.

When a post office runs into a problem and is closed for whatever reason, why must it take an eternity before it reopens? Why can a decision not be made quite quickly, whatever the issue at the post office may be, positive or negative? Why must we wait for months before a post office opens in the community? It takes business from the community and gives little opportunity to a new start-up to keep the business there.