Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Going back 80 or 100 years, the number of banks involved was small. The smaller banks were amalgamating into AIB, Bank of Ireland and so on. It simplifies it. All the new banks that came in, such as KBC, do not come into the reckoning for the foreseeable future. By that stage, the Bill, if passed, will be well amended, as all these things are. An attraction in having a long cut-off date beyond which you do not move is it simplifies how many banks could be involved in the process. I do not know if ACC ever took safe deposits. It was not set up until the 1930s or 1940s. The further back you go, the fewer banks there were. Presumably, when the Provincial Bank of Ireland, the Munster & Leinster Bank and all of those became AIB, all their safe deposit boxes moved in. The same thing happened when Bank of Ireland amalgamated with other banks. Do I take it as given that the banks are more than conscious of all the concerns we are expressing today about people having rights to property? If Ulster Bank had safe deposit boxes, as the one old bank that has ceased to exist in the State, would it have generally had a duty to protect people’s property since it does not own it and to have a vehicle to handle said property in case someone came looking for it and produced proof of ownership? That would be its problem as a bank, as opposed to the concern of the Bill.