Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I find the Taoiseach's reply incredible. Is he telling us that the first the Government heard about this bank's intentions was yesterday when it sent a redundancy notice to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment? This bank has been on the radar quite significantly, not only in respect of its approach to lending. Arguably this bank's lending practices contributed to our banking problem. Throughout the past year, it has been engaged in a very high profile advertising campaign, offering deposit interest significantly higher than that of competitor banks. This should have brought it to the attention of somebody in Government. Over the past 12 months the banks have been the central issue on the political agenda. Is the Taoiseach telling us that nobody in Government talked with this bank at any time over the past year?

Apparently, Mr. Higgins, the chief executive of the bank, said when announcing this to staff yesterday that the closure of the branch network was something that was under consideration since last summer and that he had hoped to avoid it by exploring other options. I interpreted what he said in his statement yesterday as meaning the bank was involved in some kind of discussions with Government in respect of the "third force" arrangement for an amalgamation of banks. However, it seems from what the Taoiseach has said that there were no discussions at all with the banks.

How have we got to a situation where, in a year when banks have been the centre of the political agenda, no Minister or Department was in contact with this bank with regard to its intentions? The bank has a significant share of the mortgage market and has aggressively competed for deposits. Now it has announced it will close its entire branch network to the disadvantage of its customers and to the personal, income, family and job loss of its 750 staff. Was the Government asleep while this bank was considering withdrawing from retail activity and closing its branches? Is the Taoiseach saying that nobody in Government met representatives of this bank over the course of the past year? Even it had never thought of closing its branch network, one would think somebody in Government - in a year when nothing was being discussed but banking business - would have met and talked with what was a significant player in the banking industry.

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