Mr. Gary Tobin:

I thank the Senator for his questions. I refer to the move to cashless branches and cashless banking. He is absolutely right that this phenomenon is happening. When we talk to the main banks, they tell us - and he may well say that they would tell us this but we are certainly not uncritical of what the banks tell us - that in certain instances they may have fewer than ten people walking into a branch every day and, in some cases, every week. People have voted with their feet or their fingertips and they are now doing 99% of their banking online or on their phone. That is a reality. The banking landscape in five or ten years will be fascinating because increasingly what we are seeing is the emergence of digital challengers, be it Revolut or N26. Starling Bank, which is an online bank that has indicated that it will enter the Irish market. The landscape of banking is changing absolutely.

The Senator asked about the timeline for the new regime. We are bringing forward the Central Bank (amendment) Bill 2018. We have been considering the Central Bank of Ireland's behaviour and culture report and discussing its recommendations with the bank. We have been discussing it with the Minister for Finance and we have his agreement to have discussions with the Office of the Attorney General, which are now ongoing on drafting the heads of the Bill. The aim of the Bill is to legislate for the provisions in the culture report, including senior executive accountability regime, conduct standards, and enhancements of the fitness and probity regimes, and the key elements of Deputy Pearse Doherty's Private Members' Bill. We very much want to bring those heads of the Bill to the committee for pre-legislative scrutiny as soon as we can. To some extent we are dependent on the Office of the Attorney General regarding how fast that happens.

Members will appreciate that the Office of the Attorney General has been fully engaged in the omnibus legislation for Brexit that I know Deputies in this House are all too familiar with.