Mr. Gavin Kelly:

The Senator referred to some of the upgrades and investments we have made. We have seen an explosion in online transactions, such as card transactions, Internet transactions and so forth. We are now processing 50 million payments per month through out business, which is a significant increase on a number of years ago. The more online we get, however, the more important we believe the community presence is. We will invest another €11 million in our network this year and in upgrading branches around the country. The workbench facility the Senator mentioned in Montrose gets much use. That has been rolled out to 12 other locations around the country. We recently opened workbenches in Letterkenny, Tralee and The Quay in Waterford. This concept is taking off in communities. Communities love the use of the branch, its layout and so forth. We certainly see a strong future for that.

With regard to the ATMs, I will not comment on an ongoing security issue. We had two regrettable incidents in two of our branches in Monaghan and Cavan. At times like this we must stand up and be counted. We are very committed to those communities.

In Ballybay, which I visited a couple of months ago, the ATM was put back in within two months and is fully operational again. That incident hit the community in Ballybay hard because it happened two weeks before Christmas. We kept the branch open for nine consecutive days because it was the only branch in the town.

We are the only bank branch in 64 communities in Ireland. We take that very seriously. We are very proud of that. We are committed to staying in those communities and providing those ATM services. We work with the relevant authorities, whether it is the Garda Síochána or the PSNI, to assist when it comes to incidents like that one and we continue to adapt our security measures. However, what is most important is our commitment to our staff, the safety of our staff and our communities but also to continue to provide that service. That is very important as we go forward.

In terms of five years, I wish I had a crystal ball but I still believe that for us to differentiate what we do as a bank in this market, that mix of online and community presence is essential. We will continue to invest in both our online and mobile channels but, equally, in our branch network.