Mr. Pat Leahy:

On those issues, the two longest-standing banks in Ireland are probably Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank. As I understand it, Ulster Bank has been 178 years in the State or rather, on the island. As far as I am aware, all the branches of Ulster Bank are now closed and the bank is in the process of emptying those branches. I would imagine that because they have been given issues in safe keeping, they are continuing to maintain those. As I said already, it is not a regulated activity so it does not come under the purview of the Central Bank or the Department. It is really a contractual issue between the individuals who own those safe deposit boxes and the banks themselves. We would not be up to date but I would imagine that Ulster Bank would have a duty of care to keep those safe and to store the materials somewhere. They may well be moving them out of the branches at this stage. As I understand it, they are emptying those branches for the purposes of either returning the buildings to their owners or selling the actual buildings. There is no role for us. I do not think anybody has a role here. Certainly, the Department and the Central Bank have no role.

I understand that Part 3 of the 1970 Act provides for bailment transfer which is effectively the transfer of goods to different institutions. It may well be the case that Ulster Bank will retain an entity in the State to deal with legacy issues and that may actually take control of those goods. It would be best to address the question to Ulster Bank. The arrival of KBC is more recent. It has only been here since 1971 so there may be fewer issues there. In terms of what would have been sold, its assets, including debts, mortgages and so on would have been transferred. Financial assets would have transferred from one bank to another but it would not necessarily have included safe deposit boxes as such.