Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all members of the delegation to the meeting. I thank Deputy Ó Cuív for bringing this forward. It is a very interesting topic and one that a lot of people would never have even thought about.

I have a question in the context of the winding down of Ulster Bank. I am sure that bank has safe deposit boxes such as those alluded to by Deputy Ó Cuív. What is happening there? Does the Central Bank or the Department have a role to play? Who has a role in it? Quite a number of banks have closed since the economic crash, including Irish Nationwide, KBC, and so on. What happened in regard to safety deposit boxes that they had? Would they have moved to whoever bought those banks or bought their debt? Would the purchasers have bought the safe deposit boxes as well? I am interested to know what happened.

It is very timely that Deputy Ó Cuív is bringing forward this legislation, given that Ulster Bank is winding down its operations. Indeed, the fact that Ulster Bank is winding down could give us an insight into what might happen and could strengthen Deputy Ó Cuív's Bill. We could learn from what Ulster Bank does and use the findings from its closure.