Mr. John O'Connell:

It is a 70% female workforce and is split roughly 50:50 between those with more than ten years of service and those with less than ten years of service. Some have extensive service.

I agree with the Deputy that, if nothing changes, the situation will be serious in terms of staff well-being. We are operating on the basis that the Government, the regulator and, in particular, the banks will sit up, take notice that there is an issue and decide to deal with it differently than they did previously because the old ways will not work and customers, staff and stakeholders will not tolerate that. The situation does not have to be like this. If staff saw the regulator or stakeholders taking a hold of this situation and dealing with change, they would start to feel that they were being listened to and heard. Equally so with consumers. Social media is on fire with people’s experiences of financial institutions. One need only look at social media to understand. People are posting photos and stories of their waiting times and other experiences.

There is a way that this change can be managed, but what is happening is not it. It should be done on the basis of a stakeholder approach.