Mr. Ger Deering:

In the main, our engagement is with the Banking & Payments Federation, which represents all of the banks, and Insurance Ireland. As an ombudsman we prefer to try to keep our independence from individual institutions. We meet on a half-yearly basis with the aforementioned organisations, particularly in the context of the recent changes because we needed to interact with them to let them know the changes were happening and to explain to them what we needed of them. The engagement takes place in a group setting. We might occasionally meet with a particular bank if a specific issue arises in respect of it but in general, the type of interaction the Senator has asked about is done through the representative bodies.