Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I have been informed that the management of AIB will be communicating with its employees this morning to the effect that there will be 2,500 redundancies which it hopes to achieve on a voluntary and early retirement basis. My first concern is for the employees of AIB because obviously this is upsetting news for all those who work in the bank. I understand there is a process in place whereby management will be communicating directly with them. There were meetings early this morning between management and the union representing the bank staff, the IBOA, and between the Department of Finance and the IBOA.

Clearly, the announcement of redundancies will have a major impact on those who work in the bank and our immediate concern must be for them. However, we must also examine - this will be the Government's priority - how to create new jobs in the banking and financial services industry. In the Government's jobs action plan, announced some weeks ago, we have set a target of 10,000 new jobs in banking and financial services. We need to work on attracting investment into the banking and financial services industry in order to create these jobs. In addition, we must consider the fact that there will be a large number of people with banking skills and experience who will be available for such employment. As Deputies know, the Government has revised its whole approach to what happens when people become redundant, with the introduction of the Pathways to Work system. What we envisage is that work will be done on how to adapt the skills and experience of those who are losing jobs in the banking system in order that they will be available and ready for new opportunities that will arise in the financial services sector.

In response to the Deputy's question, our concern today is for the employees of AIB who are receiving this bad news, but the Government's focus is on what can be done to create new jobs and attract new investment into the financial services sector in order to provide new employment opportunities for those who are losing their jobs in the bank and for those who have lost jobs in other banks.

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