Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I live in a rural community. Nobody ever consulted the people who are loyal customers not only of Bank of Ireland but other banks. In many places, because Bank of Ireland did not close down its branches when other banks did, people moved to Bank of Ireland in good faith and now they find they are going in and talking to machines. They cannot get a human being to speak to. One of the bank's key objectives is to develop relationships with existing and new customers. How will the bank develop a relationship with a customer when all they are given is a machine to transact with? I am really concerned about small businesses in areas where they cannot get change and cannot interact with a human being. We could spend a whole session discussing loyal customers of Bank of Ireland and how they have been treated over the years. There are many flags coming up on this. Can Mr. McLoughlin explain the bank's objectives in choosing diversification by geography? Will he explain to me what that means? People feel the banks are feeding into the divide between the urban and rural. The realisation that they will make greater and greater profits through complex financial transactions is all the banks can see at the moment. Have any of the decisions made by the banks been reversed in terms of having greater customer service within the banks?

I have asked a lot of questions but I am just trying to get at whether there is any way of stopping this absolute train crash from destroying the relationship between people, particularly in rural areas, and the main banks. Does the committee have to put in a public bank and put all its weight behind having public banking services and making the credit unions more robust?