Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 2 March 2021
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised)
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source
Under the relationship framework signed up to by the Department and the bank, not only can the Minister express an opinion, including calling for these branches not to be closed, but indeed in any consultation with the Minister, his views must be taken into account. That is not to say they must be acted upon but they must be taken into account. The Minister is the largest shareholder in Bank of Ireland on behalf of the Irish people because €4.7 billion of Irish taxpayers' money was put into this. People are hurting and they are angry. They are suffering considerably as a result of the pandemic and this is the respect they get, with the announcement that services will be withdrawn. Whatever about telling us how difficult it will be and how challenging it will be for business, will the Minister say that Bank of Ireland should reconsider its decision to close the branches, particularly in the middle of a pandemic?
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