Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was quite shocked and it is why I brought it up to get people from the banks before us in the next session in the new year. I was talking to the owner of quite a large business in my town of Mullingar, who employs 80 people. He has gone back to paying his staff in cash as a means of getting rid of it. That is dynamite stuff, as one can appreciate. With any large amount of cash, perhaps €10,000 or €20,000, he has to get Securicor to come and collect it. That is bank policy and it does not want to see him landing with much cash. I can speak of my own experience working in a small business. Guys with lodgements of between €2,000 and €6,000 or €7,000 have to feed it into machines, which is crazy even from a security perspective. It is for the birds and the banks must look at this differently or there will be problems. Somebody will be held up or there will be problems down the line relating to where the cash goes and chances that people are taking. I am sure the witnesses are coming across this.

I recently spoke with a vintner and the insurance matters were only really made clear at that stage yesterday. He was paying €3,000 for insurance and this went to €7,000 last year. He had one claim over ten years of €23,000, with a €3,000 excess that he paid. This year the company wanted €19,500.

He only had one claim in ten years. Some of these insurance figures are being pulled out of the sky. He got a quote somewhere else. He is now paying approximately €8,000. It is hard to believe. There seems to be no accountability with regard to insurance costs. There has been a great deal of discussion about motor insurance. We need to have a similar debate about insurance costs for business. The way businesses are being treated by the banks is of relevance in that context. The banks have a lack of staff and have absolutely no respect for business users.