Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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I thank the representatives of the FSU. The information provided has been very interesting. The information from the Ireland Thinks poll of the union's membership is particularly interesting. I will start with that mental crisis within the workforce of the banks. The poll indicates that 88% of the FSU's members who responded regularly or very regularly feel stressed at work. It also reports that 73% feel that stress levels and pressures have increased since the exits of Ulster Bank and KBC were announced. We are at an early stage in this process. The pressure will not remain the same or lessen. It is only going to increase in the coming months, possibly rapidly at a certain point. Everybody in society has experienced extra mental health pressures in the past two years as a result of the Covid pandemic. These extra pressures being heaped on the FSU's members are a matter of great concern. Do the witnesses share the view that those mental health pressures are set to increase on foot of these exits in the months ahead? Can they give us a little bit of a sense of the workforce? I imagine that many experienced people were lost with the job cuts in recent years. Is the workforce mainly young? Is it mainly female?

I would be interested in hearing about these issues.