Results 6,361-6,380 of 35,575 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Gripping all of that together, Ms Howard has come here and redefined how she will target. It was closure of accounts and now it is little activity. She speaks about between one and five transactions. However, one transaction that defaults could be a major one. Breaking this down, 51% have closed and their deadline is now two weeks away. It will be two weeks from Friday, but 51% have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate that. I want to get some statistics, however, because none of these numbers were in Ms Howard’s opening statement. The key issue for us is that there is a deadline of two weeks from Friday, when the bank is to suspend activity. We know that 8,500 are still open. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: We will come to that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Ms Howard mentioned in her opening statement that there will be a process there, which I welcome. I want to come to that, if that is okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: So, there are 8,500 that are still open. Of the 8,500 that are still open and that have a deadline of two weeks from Friday, how many of them have a nil balance or have no activity whatsoever and are basically inactive?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Is the figure 2,200 or roughly about that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Just over 3,000. Then we have approximately 5,500 accounts that have some level of activity, are not closed and that have a deadline. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Ms Howard is mixing up two different categories that I want to separate, because she is saying has “no activity” or “little activity”. That “little activity” is an active current account. It is an active account. If there is activity on it, then it is active.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: What type of activity is it, if Ms Howard could give me an example?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Yes, but they could be a direct debit. Could it be a direct debit for a mobile phone?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Could it be an electricity bill?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Could it be an electricity bill?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: So that is an active account.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate that but I want to get the bottom of this. There are 9,271 accounts that have been closed of the 17,291 that have a deadline of two weeks from Friday. How many other accounts that remain open have absolutely no activity and a nil balance; that basically are completely inactive? Do not categorise somebody who might have to pay their direct debit for their electricity or their...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: The number is 2,592. What are we left with, then? Is it 5,400, which is the figure I mentioned earlier on? We are therefore talking about 5,400 accounts that have some level of activity, either transactions, direct debits, maybe partial payments-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I am just trying to figure this out, because they have a deadline of two weeks from Friday, do they not?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: There are 5,400 accounts with Ulster Bank that have some level of activity at different scales. Some of those could be wages and some of them could be mortgage. Some of them could be at a lower level, such as an iTunes bill, an ESB bill or whatever. Of those 5,400 accounts, the deadline for them to close their account is two weeks from Friday. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Ms Howard is saying that Ulster Bank is on target. Did she think that after six months and she gave an extra month, that a month after the original deadline, having 5,400 active accounts out of 17,000 is a good target? I would argue that it is not good. That is one third of all accounts that are still active.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Hang on. Can I just make this point? If you close their account, I know we will get to this point, but if you freeze their account and their electricity bill is not paid and they get disconnected, try telling that family the bank thought it was an inactive account.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland (19 Oct 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Ulster Bank is changing the rules of what the bank set out to do because it is not meeting its targets. The target was the closure of accounts. Now Ulster Bank is talking about inactive accounts. However, these inactive accounts are really accounts that have some activity on them.