Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The Minister of State alluded in his remarks to the thousands of Ulster Bank customers whose social welfare payments and monthly salaries are due to be paid into their accounts this week. It is critical these people are reassured that they will have access to their money. Not everyone has the benefit of an Ulster Bank branch around the corner from them. This affair has caused enormous distress and inconvenience for many people. It is not sufficient to say that people will not be out of pocket. We need an assurance that there will be no black mark recorded on the credit history of people whose mortgage or loan repayments were missed through no fault of theirs. People in the UK are already having difficulty having their record corrected. We need to ensure there is no such consequence here.

I again call on the Central Bank to undertake a thorough investigation into this matter. While it may have originated in the RBS Group and outside of our jurisdiction it is affecting Irish customers and Irish banks. The Central Bank needs to thoroughly investigate this matter and to rigorously stress test the contingency plans in place in all Irish banks. This could happen again.

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