Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the groups for their detailed presentations which have been very insightful. The contraction of the recession, the impact it had on the banking sector and the knock-on impact on society in general means there will be a change with regard to the banks, but the biggest issue I can see, particularly in rural Ireland with smaller bank branches, is the loss of power of the local bank manager. Will the representatives from AIB and Bank of Ireland touch on how this has happened? The mistakes made by the banking sector, no more than other mistakes in policy throughout the country, were made at a very high level, in national headquarters and beyond, where the people involved could not see some of the risks being taken in overall financing. I do not believe the problems of the recession were the fault of the local bank managers.

I was a farmer before I came to this job, and this point is also with regard to small businesses and community groups. Local bank managers had local knowledge, knew everybody locally and had respect. They also had the power to make decisions about lending. When a farmer or small business owner came in to talk about a tough time, the bank manager who dealt with them may have had a relationship with them for ten years. A local bank manager had the ability to take a punt on something that might look dodgy on paper to a manager making a decision in Dublin. This seems to be gone. Bank managers in the regions are very much administrators more than bank managers and have lost this power. Even if I am wrong, the perception is not wrong because it is how my constituents and the public perceive it. Why do the representatives from the banks believe this has happened? Do they agree with me? Do they believe the banks have lost the local knowledge? Local managers must now push a request up the line, and the person making the final decision is so far removed from the loan request or loan extension request and the local knowledge that they are not best placed to make the decision. The witnesses spoke about an evolving system but do they see any change back to what was? I take the points on board about the big move to online, and we are probably moving away from more human contact and interface, but we will never lose it completely, especially when it comes to small business. If we address this issue we will address many of the problems for banking and beyond.

What are the impediments to credit unions and the post office network working more closely together, particularly for the post office network? To me they are a perfect fit. In my local village the credit union only opens for a couple of hours on Friday evenings, when it does not always suit to get there. We have a massive asset in the post office network, which is open and looking for footfall. I know contact has been made, but I believe more synergy could be there. I am disappointed more has not been made of this potential. Will the witnesses outline the impediments? From a policy perspective, are there any moves we can make to assist them in working more closely together? From a distance, I can see the mutual benefits but perhaps I am missing something big.

The credit union to which I referred, which only opens on Friday evenings, has amalgamated with other credit unions. I received a crash course in the credit union sector as a baptism of fire when I was a new Deputy for Kildare South when problems arose with the Newbridge branch, which I know was not part of the Irish League of Credit Unions. At that time there was a lot of criticism about the registrar of the day referring to a hub and spoke system, and the idea of every credit union having its own entity not being viable in the future. I now see my local credit union amalgamating with larger credit unions. Is the hub and spoke model playing out? Is it the right thing to do? What are the challenges to it? No more than my point on the banks, we do not want to lose local knowledge but I accept we must have proper governance and not everybody is suitably qualified to be a director of a credit union. I ask the witnesses for their comments on this.

I thank Mr. Daly from An Post for his presentation. When he spoke about his role in the post office network development group and Bobby Kerr's group, what recommendations has he brought to the development group? Has he come up with his own ideas on how to support the post office network? How does he propose to try to solve the post office network's problems which are quite evident? Earlier I spoke about perception, and there is a perception that An Post takes the post office network for granted and that it could do more. I believe the network needs to develop services away from An Post in order that it is not totally dependent on it because this could lead to complacency. I would like to hear any recommendations he has brought as an individual. I accept the points on new business which he outlined, such as the court fines process and foreign exchange. These will bring increased footfall and perhaps this is the answer to my question. Does Mr. Daly understand the concern in the post office network? Is he working proactively with it? He began by stating the scale of the network is a great asset and I acknowledge this.

It is great to have the Irish Postmasters Union before the committee. I completely agree it is a national asset and a remarkable starting point. If an entrepreneur came in with this model and was asked to make it work, that person would get very excited about the possibilities. He or she would also see many challenges. Its greatest strength is the scale of the network it has throughout the country. I welcome the work of Bobby Kerr's committee and the hub initiative of the Minister of State, Deputy Ring. The committee would not be doing the union's representatives any favours today if we told them they were all great and we will fight against people who want social welfare transactions to go online. One of the responsibilities of the committee is the improved provision of broadband throughout the country, and Deputy Ó Cuív touched on this earlier. The committee is working very hard to make sure we get better access to broadband throughout the country. I tell my constituents and business people in rural south Kildare who are up in arms because they want improved provision of broadband to be careful what they wish for, because when it comes it will mean ease of access for online shopping, and all online transactions will become easier.

We have serious education work to do to let people know that if they do not use local services such as the post office network, they will lose them. The people who turn up at public meetings to attack politicians on the closure of post offices are probably the very people who have not stood in a post office for a long time. Earlier Mr. O'Hara mentioned that people voted in the election but those same people may not be using the network as much as they should. The witnesses will find no greater supporters of the network than me and other members of the committee, but the move online cannot be stopped.

I am aware of the very positive work being carried out through listening sessions. This comes back to my point on moving away from An Post and not being overly dependent on it. Several points that jumped out at me as having huge potential are the peace commissioner service and tourism. This comes back to local knowledge.