Mr. Eamonn Crowley:

That is the same for Permanent TSB. We have similar support for fraud and things of that nature on card lines. For the main service we have condensed and shortened those hours. This is primarily related to resourcing issues due to the impact of Covid and an increased customer demand, particularly as the new digital security SEA authentication came in last year. The level of interaction by customers has actually increased and call types have lengthened, which has put extra pressure on those call centres. It requires a certain consultation time to obtain that service.

Customer patterns have also changed. Given that people are working from home, they tend to ring within those normal hours rather than outside of working hours. They now have more flexibility when working from home, so customer choice has changed in that regard.