Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests this evening. I happen to be a customer, by coincidence, having changed like a lot of other people did from one of the banks leaving the country.

I watched the ads about the transition from one bank to another and how smooth it is, but it is not. That is the answer to that question. It is just a humdrum, long drawn out year's work to get the account in a bank that is leaving the country closed and the new account set up. It took me the guts of a year and even then I had to threaten legal action because they just would not go away. I am not blaming our guests for that but I have the following observation. Business is all about competition and if you are the same as the others, as far as the customer is concerned, then there is a limit to what you can ever do. Thus, while it might be convenient for the banks to have this brotherly love, no competition and if you do such and such a thing we will do something else that will not affect you, that does not gain any business. There is nothing for a potential customer there. Previous speakers talked about the potential customers versus the existing customers. It would be a good thing for the bank, between now and the next time it is before the committee, to look at the points raised by Deputy Doherty and see to what extent, if any, it could incorporate them into its modus operandi. It would be important, and far better than all the ads. If the bank compared the cost it might be more cost-effective than the ads as well. That is my summation because I have always had a suspicion of ads, what they mean and what they tell you they do. I am aware there is a consistency about the expenditure the bank could not have in other areas and all that kind of thing but the fact of the matter is we are in the competition business.

The other thing I want to talk about is the importance of the customer. There is not a great deal of importance any more in having customers in this country and particularly with the banks in general. That was seen by the way the personalised counter service that was available all over the country disappeared overnight. Of course it saves money but it loses money as well. There is no question in the world about it. There were lending institutions that give that a personal touch and that appealed to the customer on the basis the customer is an important person. There is no alternative to that. Nothing can replace the customer feeling when they go into a lending institution that they are welcome there, that they are going to the people they always went to on their own street in their own town and that they do not have to go anywhere else. I would like the bank to muse on that.

A useful advertisement to employ would be to offer to restore the ATM that was seized from the Houses of the Oireachtas in the middle of the Covid lockdown. I deemed that at the time to be a prelude to something else, namely, closing more of them down throughout the country, and that happened. It would be an advertisement. The excuse we were given at the time was that the ATM was not making money. Not everything is about making money, and not everything one does in a banking system is about making money. Some of it is about public relations and the degree to which the customer, or potential customer, is impressed by the way an institution does business.

In response the previous questioner, Mr. Kelly mentioned 2017 and 2020. The later was the most awful time in this country that ever was. There was nobody going anywhere; they were forbidden to move. Everybody who could was using the electronic system. It worked but it was not always ideal for some people, for reasons that are established. That is one for our guests from the bank. The bank is in competition with others, so let us see. Incidentally, it was said about the closure of the machine here that there were no people using it. I was often at it when there was a queue of customers. Whether the people who put it there were blindsided or whatever, I do not what the reason was but this is the Parliament and it was an important ATM. There are many customers in here - a captive audience - and it would be appreciated by them. There is something in lieu of advertising.

Before I go, I should mention that I, like the Chairman, had lots of interaction with Bank of Ireland during and after the crash. I am not saying this out of peevishness in the context of the witnesses who were before us earlier, but I was always treated with respect. Bank of Ireland staff at national and regional level were extremely courteous and helpful. They did everything they could to set up a situation and resolve the thing for the customer, with one exception. That was the bank's former chief executive, who has now gone elsewhere. He made a famous speech that immediately threw many of the customers I was dealing with into appalling fear they were about to be evicted from their homes and so forth. Tragically, some took their lives. It was a sad thing but it happened. The moral of that is simple, namely, nobody in that kind of position should ever loosely use their situation to drum up custom or improve their lot. They should think about the customer, and especially vulnerable customers, of which there were many up and down the country.

I will conclude by giving my thanks to those who were thoughtful, who listened and who tried to do something about the situation that developed. There were not many who did but the people I met in the Bank of Ireland did. They went to a lot of trouble to make alternative arrangements for people throughout the country. I am not only talking about this part of the country, but places all over the country. I did not always see that coming from other quarters. I thank the Chairman; I must attend another meeting.