Mr. John O'Connell:

I thank the committee for allowing us to address it today. I also take the opportunity to thank the committee for its interim report, which resulted in us being here today. I welcome the opportunity to address the committee today, although I truly wish the circumstances were different. I believe that for years to come the Ulster Bank withdrawal from the Irish market will be a case study in how not to do change. Rarely, does one have a situation where customers, businesses, trade unions, politicians and whole cross-sections of society concur on their unbelievable treatment by one of the so-called pillars of the banking world, NatWest-Ulster Bank.

It would be a disservice to our staff today if we ignored the behaviour of NatWest towards them in the past six months. There were significant media reports on five key occasions which provided an opportunity for the bank to come clean with staff. That was the case right up to last Thursday morning when the bank issued a report to staff to state that no decision had been taken. It is not conceivable in our minds that the bank was in that position at that time, but that is what was stated to staff. Staff took that information and went home, only to hear the next morning that the bank was leaving Ireland. This behaviour is not acceptable, and it should never be acceptable to any organisation, but that kind of behaviour is continuing from NatWest-Ulster Bank today. A statement from the bank last Friday said there would be no compulsory redundancies in Ireland. Today, 40 staff are fighting for their jobs and trying to stop NatWest-Ulster Bank from making them compulsorily redundant.

The bank was also far from clear with our colleagues from Northern Ireland on the impact of the changes on them. Senior management in Northern Ireland wrote to all staff stating there would be no impact, yet we had to push the bank to make clear to staff that they too would be impacted. A total of 600 jobs in Belfast are affected, which is £25 million out of the local economy. Let us put ourselves in the shoes of those staff last Friday morning. They did not know whether they were coming or going. Their bosses told them that there was no impact, yet they were being told that the bank in Dublin was telling people that those jobs were gone.

We have three asks of the committee. Jobs must follow the work. We must have a situation coming out of this so that when loan books are sold, there is no equivocation or dilly-dallying and it is clear to staff their jobs are safe and they will travel with their work. As I said, there were to be no compulsory redundancies. What does that mean? It does not mean much to the 40 staff in Ulster Bank. We need the bank to confirm today there will be no compulsory redundancies in Ireland full stop. In terms of branch closures, we want the moratorium on branch closures extended. We are in the middle of a pandemic. The UK regulator has called on British banks to stop closing branches. Our regulator needs to stand up and state clearly it will not tolerate branches being closed on the Irish public in the middle of a pandemic.

In its annual report, the bank stated it is considering options with regard to the implementation of a phased withdrawal strategy. We want the bank to make clear what this means. We want people to leave today with absolute clarity as to the bank's intentions. The Financial Services Union, FSU, will be publishing a document on the establishment of a banking forum within the next fortnight. We are doing so because we believe the only way forward for us, as a society, is to have proper debate on what the future of banking holds. We cannot and will not allow banking to be dictated by a number of senior bankers, having no regard to the impact on our society and our communities. We will share that with the committee in advance of publication. Having reviewed it, we would like the committee to be in a position to support it.

There is a lot of change afoot in banking. KBC closed 25% of its branch network within two months. Staff and customers were compulsorily disengaged. AIB has announced cuts to jobs and staffing levels but is engaged in constructive dialogue with us. The sale of hundreds of ATMs to the highest bidder has recently been announced and it has also been announced that banks may start charging customers for the privilege of having their money held. What is missing from these announcements is any prior dialogue with consumer, staff and business representatives. Change can be positive, but it must be agreed change. That is why we believe a stakeholders' forum is vital.

I will bring one final thing to the attention of the committee, the media reports circulating about significant branch closures in Bank of Ireland. That is why we are calling for a moratorium. Bank closures should be paused for the duration of the pandemic. It would be of great benefit to staff and customers if the committee could consider inviting Bank of Ireland to a meeting at a future date to explain its rationale. I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to address the committee.