Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his generosity. I also thank the Chairman for the invitation to attend this meeting. I am delighted to address our friends from the Allied Irish Banks, Mr. Kinsella, Mr. Byrne and Mr. O’Keeffe.

I have a question for Mr. Kinsella and I want to discuss the noise comment too. In terms of the banking sector, I agree that there is a lot of noise but the bank built up a lot of that noise with loose lending. Let us remember that the noise relates to human stories. A couple of girls have just left the Gallery and the Chairman raised their sad case earlier. Unfortunately, there are many sad cases. I wish to criticise Allied Irish Banks for its lack of engagement. The bank has told politicians, the people and committees that it is engaging but that does not happen. It is nigh impossible for genuine people who want to work their way out of their financial difficulties, for their sake and all of our sakes, to get a face-to-face meeting with bank officials. These genuine people have been put through enormous stress and trauma, and ended up with ill-health. God knows, there have been many suicides and many other devastating issues as a result. We are all in this together and trying to work our way out of this. I am accompanied by a couple today and I hope that Mr. O'Keeffe would give them-----