Ms Catherine Moroney:

Allied Irish Banks has no plans to close any branches. In terms of our current footprint, our focus is on ensuring we are accessible everywhere. In every town, we either have an AIB branch or an An Post presence, which also takes in cash and coin for our SMEs. We have branches in 275 locations in Ireland and 1,100 An Post services. We do not restrict any services. Cash, coin and cheque services are available in all cases. We have opened some new branches. We have been focusing more on accessibility rather than new physical infrastructure but we have opened a branch in Little Island in Cork and several others in Dublin. We have changed availability by installing lobbies and extending opening hours. We also have mobile advisers and our direct services are available until late in the evening. Interestingly, one of the most avid users of that service is farmers because they prefer to do their banking at home, which surprised us when we made that facility available to customers. We monitor our services carefully. We do not have any top trending complaints from customers in regard to accessibility. We provide a full service offering.