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

I will not give a Civil Service answer and there is nothing wrong with our Civil Service. I will give my own opinion and the facts. The facts are that the Government cannot intervene over a commercial decision, as the Deputy knows as well as I do. I will not sugar-coat it. The decision by Bank of Ireland to close so many branches is a very serious blow for the communities served by those branches. It is an enormous blow for the staff. I have already spoken about the need for them to be properly looked after and indeed for the customers who are served by those branches to be looked after. In recent days we have seen news reports indicating how those communities will miss having a branch.

The Government cannot dictate to individual banks the nature of the service or how it is provided. However, we can use the levers we have, including our role as a shareholder in An Post, our role as a supporter of the credit union movement and our role generally in banking policy to try to ensure that services are provided. It is a very difficult time for any community relying on the services of branches that will close later this year or in the future in the case of Ulster Bank. It would be wrong for me to give the impression that the Government can control that because the Deputy knows we cannot.