Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I agree with Deputy Rabbitte that the Government is very concerned about what has happened in recent times. There were nine events in 2006, although not all were successful, four in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and five in 2009 to date. These events cause major trauma to the victims and their families and, often, to bank employees even where they were not directly involved.

One of the developments from last week's meeting is that local gardaí will regularly visit financial institutions' premises to liaise with staff. Our discussions focused on the concern that individuals continue to have access to large amounts of money and ensuring that people are not put under duress. It is my experience of dealing with this matter over the past 18 months that anywhere the protocols have been complied with they have been successful from a law enforcement point of view. Given that they now appear to be targeting families as well as individual bank officials, there is grave concern that, God forbid, someone will be injured in any subsequent incident. I want to widen the discussions to listen to the views of the Irish Bank Officials Association on what more can be done.

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