Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to ask about the bank's new strategic plan. I note it held an investor day in London last month. Bank of Ireland is targeting quite significant reductions in its cost base, reducing to €1.7 billion by 2021. The bank is investing €250 million to, as the plan describes, "broaden the extent of transformation to deliver business model benefits and accelerate the reduction in [its] cost base". It has been widely reported that this will mean job losses, particularly at middle management levels. Can Ms McDonagh set out the bank's plans in this regard? I ask her to start by confirming the bank's current employee headcount. How many of those are in Ireland, and what has the bank publicly confirmed, if anything, about planned redundancies and job losses?