Mr. Patrick Farrell:

I thank the Senator. As Mr. Crowley has said, the branches are a core part of our business. They have been a core part of our community bank for over 200 years and we see them as a core part of our business going forward. During that period the network evolved and it is evolving today. The Senator is correct that 44 of our branches are moving to automated cash services but I will explain what that allows us to do. Our focus in those branches is to ensure we can stop doing the administrative tasks behind the counter and get our staff out front of house so when one comes into our branches one is met by a person. We acknowledge consumer behaviour has changed drastically, particularly in the last 15 months, towards more mobile and online banking. Our customers also really want to meet a person and the core of our bank at a community level has always been about people. We are still able to do 98% of the in-branch transactions that a person could have done when there was a cash desk but by using state-of-the-art automated machines we are able to get our staff out front of house to engage with our customers to help and assist them.

We also have a 100-strong external workforce in the community. Not all customers can come in to us. We have to bring our branch service into every home and business in the country. Covid has restricted that a little bit in the past while. We want to get that workforce back out again so they can engage with and look after our customers.

We have invested €30 million in the past number of years. As Mr. Crowley said, we are investing €5 million this year. We are also considering other brand formats. We use pop-up stores, particularly in shopping centres. We want to bring our services to the customer to make sure that we stay relevant and viable. We see our branches as a core part of our franchise and business, and people are at the heart of that.