John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have received apologies from Senator Higgins. Earlier on, during private session, we dealt with the minutes of our meeting of 20 September and they were agreed.

Today we are dealing with banking issues. I welcome representatives from Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, AIB, and Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, BPFI. We are joined by Mr. Eamonn Crowley, CEO of Permanent TSB, Mr. Patrick Farrell, director of retail banking at Permanent TSB, Mr. Brian Hayes, chief executive of BPFI, Dr. Ali Ugur, chief economist and head of prudential regulation at BPFI, Dr. Colin Hunt, CEO of AIB, Ms Elaine Downey, head of products in AIB, Mr. Tom Kinsella, managing director of homes in AIB, Mr. Myles O'Grady, Group CEO of Bank of Ireland, and Ms Susan Russell, CEO of Irish retail, Bank of Ireland.

I remind members and witnesses of the note on privilege. Members are covered by full privilege when attending on the campus of Leinster House. Outside of that there may just be limited privilege. Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person or entity outside the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person concerned.

We will have three opening statements from Dr. Hunt, Mr. O'Grady and Mr. Hayes and we will take them in that order. I invite Dr. Hunt to make his opening statement.