Results 7,141-7,160 of 35,563 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Are they historical figures or have we seen in recent weeks and months large numbers of people leaving, particularly the receiving banks? I would be more concerned about Bank of Ireland and AIB. Are we seeing people being let go from those banks?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: We have heard that banks are finding it difficult to recruit as they are so far behind the curve. Some of this was sudden, particularly with KBC, but it is not sudden anymore. We have known of the trajectory for almost a year. Even before Ulster Bank's announcement, there were serious concerns that this was a likelihood. So why are banks not redeploying staff if they are letting people...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I know it is difficult to pinpoint what is happening with staffing. These questions were asked last week and we may not have been given an accurate picture of redundancies. The committee should write detailed letters to all five institutions asking about their staffing levels and the type of staff they have in place at various points over the past 18 months to provide a greater...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: There are about 3,300 staff in both institutions with about 800 of them to transfer.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: That is a massive drop in the staff based on the numbers which they have given us, which I presume are the nice numbers, of temporary and contract positions. They do not come anywhere near those. Some banks are talking about 70 additional staff, which is a drop in the ocean. Will the witnesses explain what is happening for customers of Ulster Bank who go into a branch of a receiving bank to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I strongly believe the Central Bank has a role here. This committee engages with the Central Bank and we have seen an approach from it, which is playing out in public, that is to be welcomed. It is one thing to issue statements and do round tables with CEOs to say they are not ready, but it should not allow KBC to issue letters until it is ready. It should not have happened with Ulster...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: My time is short so I will ask one last question and make a short comment on staff morale. I know the Financial Services Union published its survey. It is shocking that 80% of people are affected in different ways. I echo the comment that while these are private banks, the State has a shareholding in many of them, which comes with responsibility. If staff feel this type of burnout or...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I thank Ms Sayers for the presentation. I have a few questions about the switching process and a more general question if the witnesses are in a position to answer it. The switching process that has been outlined by the banks is that one can go through all the direct debits and standing orders in one's current account and do it oneself or one can use the switching code. In reality,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Some 25% have used the switching code. How does Ms Sayers find the switching code? She says it is paper based. Is she suggesting that there is an envelope arriving into Electric Ireland with a form and a stamp on it? Is that what is happening in this day and age?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Has there been no discussion with Electric Ireland and either the banks that are leaving or the representative body BPFI about a more automated system between them? Electric Ireland is among the top 20, if not the top ten, direct debit originators. In this day and age the idea that somebody is putting a form into an envelope, sealing the envelope, putting a stamp on it and sending it off...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Is the BPFI saying that it cannot be electronic and the Central Bank switching code has to be paper based?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Is there anything else that can be done? We are at the start of this process and customer behaviour is what it is. Some customers will move early, will see the letter and deal with it in the next hour or the next day, while others will put the letter on top of the fridge, meaning to get to it but they will forget. The banks will be taking out far more advertisements and there will be more...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I was going to come to that later but maybe I will deal with it now. I attended workshops in Tullamore on retail banking last week where I mentioned that switching has to become simple. It is a lot simpler in the energy market. Switching bank must be something people can do easily. Otherwise, the banks will be able to take advantage of the fact that people do not switch and therefore do...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I thank Ms Sayers for drawing attention in her opening statement to the lessons that can be learned from the supplier of last resort mechanism. It originates from an EU directive which was transposed into Irish law a decade and a half ago. It recognises that energy is a commodity upon which consumers depend. It could be argued that access to banking, cash or money to pay for that energy is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Are the banks not allowed to inform Electric Ireland of who they are contacting?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Electric Ireland could be writing to customers and they might not get a letter until next year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Some of the KBC customers may be later. Electric Ireland could be writing to customers that do not have a letter.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: That is very problematic. The process is in phases and customers are getting letters. There have been 120,000 issued so far. They will need to have their accounts closed by the autumn or winter. At that point, if they have not closed and transferred their accounts, they will be frozen out of their electricity accounts because the direct debits will fail. Unfortunately, the reality is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Withdrawal from Irish Banking Market (Resumed): Engagement with Financial Services Union and Electric Ireland (25 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Okay. I have a final tangential question. Customers of Electric Ireland receive their bills and the energy credit that was passed through the Houses of the Oireachtas. We have had a number of queries about how Electric Ireland is applying the credit so could I get clarification on that? Is the VAT being applied to the bill charge before or after the deduction? If it is applied before the...