Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The writing is on the wall here. We can all see it. That is why I have asked the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach to carry out a piece of work on this. We have issued detailed questionnaires to all the banks. All of them have responded, bar KBC Bank, but we will get its response soon, and we have engaged with the Central Bank on this. There will be a big, big problem here. There are 1 million accounts being closed over the next short period. The banks that are closing just want out. The receiving banks are not ready. They are not up for it. It is not only a matter of answering phones. People who have overdrafts must go into branches. Branches have been closed. Their staff have not been beefed up. There are serious problems coming down the line. There are vulnerable customers. There are direct debits. There are mortgages that will fail. All of this is happening.

I must take issue with the Minister of State's point that there is no role here for the Department of Finance.

The Minister for Finance, on behalf of the Irish State, is the majority shareholder in AIB. He is the major shareholder in Bank of Ireland. He is the majority shareholder in Permanent TSB. These are the three banks that are going to receive the 1 million customers. That is where the problem is. The infrastructure is not there to do this in an orderly timeframe. The Minister needs to intervene. He needs to call in the CEOs to complement the work that is being done by the Central Bank from a regulatory point of view.

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