Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are no likely retail entrants into the Irish banking sector in the immediate future; none. The possibility that this may change in the medium term exists. It may change as the banking sector overall regains a degree of profitability but there are no large European or global retail banks considering moving into Ireland in the immediate future. We have had a bank leave Ireland and I am afraid that the gravity of that, in terms of why the bank has left Ireland and what that means for the banks that we still have here, is underestimated by many at the moment.

We are having a debate and Opposition Deputies in particular are calling for new retail banks to come to Ireland while at the same time, they are calling on the existing banks in Ireland to do things that would mean that any new retail bank is less likely to come here. The more likely sources of immediate innovation and new banking services are non-bank lenders. By non-bank lenders, I mean entities that are providing branch services directly to consumers but which do not have branches in our country. They provide those services purely by technology. It is really remarkable that while many Opposition Deputies in particular have commented on the effect that the lack of a branch will have on older customers, which I recognise, there has been so little acknowledgement of how people's relationship with banks has changed because they are deciding to do more banking on their phones. The impact of technology and what that means for banks is really relevant to the future of the sector we are debating.

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