Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We know that 120,000 letters have been issued. There will be another 100,000 in the next number of weeks and approximately another 100,000 every month thereafter for a year. Banks were letting staff go and now they are scrambling to find and recruit staff. There is a lack of planning here. These banks announced that they were withdrawing from the market well over a year ago.

Maybe that leads me to my next question, which I will direct to Mr. Hayes. Will he tell us what will change now? I read his opening statement, which referenced all these working groups that have been set up and all the rest, and Banking and Payments Federation Ireland has been at this for almost a year now, but the Central Bank has given it an F mark, or very close to it. It stated it was clear that on the ground banks are not where they need to be to meet the challenge of this exercise. The Central Bank also said the banks are not providing the necessary level of reassurance to affected customers and it called them in. We are at the start of the process, but for an individual who is one of the 120,000 people who has received a letter stating his or her account needs to be closed within six months and, if not, the account will be frozen, we are well into the process. As a co-ordinating body, Banking and Payments Federation Ireland has not been able to live up to the expectations the Central Bank set for it more than a year ago. I do not want the representatives to say how great they are doing. I want to know what will change after the CEOs' round table yesterday, if anything.