John Whelan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I am glad to see him here because I know he takes the matters we raise here seriously and will address them to the best of his ability. Where will I start with regard to AIB? It is in State ownership but not under State control because the same people are still running it in their own image and likeness and doing what they see fit with scant regard for the public interest or for the interest of their loyal and long-standing customers. The manner in which the bank is not dealing with mortgage arrears has been well rehearsed and I will not go into it this evening. It leaves much to be desired to say the least. Regardless of what the bank says, it is certainly not being supportive of small businesses or making credit available to them.

As the Minister of State is aware, to add insult to injury, we face the imminent closure of AIB branches in 56 towns around the country. This is a further blow to the self-employed and the small businesses in these communities.

I accept that the Minister of State, the Minister for Finance and the Government cannot micro-manage every decision and start running AIB. God knows, it has enough executives to do that. At the same time, we must bring some influence, common sense and reason to bear on the matter. One of the bank branches due for closure this week is in Portarlington, which has a population of 8,000 according to the current census. That could not be considered a small town by any stretch of the imagination, in fact, it is one of the fastest growing towns in the country.

I may appear to be coming to this issue very late in the day but it was not something with which I wanted to trouble the Department of Finance and the Minister of State. We tried to exhaust every possible avenue with AIB management at area, regional and national level with the director of regional banking. However, we were stonewalled at every attempt to even get AIB to consider deferring the decision until after Christmas. We asked AIB to consider postponing the decision so its socio-economic impact, the question of whether there were any viable alternatives and what arrangements AIB would put in place for their long-standing customers could be considered, without prejudice to the commercial nature of the decisions AIB was making with regard to the closures and rationalisation that may be required within its operations. Hundreds of businesses will not only be discommoded but put at serious risk.

AIB contends that An Post will make facilities available but there are serious limitations and restrictions on the amount of cash An Post can handle. I am not happy that sufficient alternative arrangements have been put in place by AIB with An Post and I do not believe An Post is capable of coping with the additional business. In many of the post offices about which we are talking, there are already queues out the door so I cannot understand how anyone is expected to do business there with their business account.

I will conclude with my primary question. I do not want to be alarmist or create problems that are not there but I believe the withdrawal by AIB of night safe facilities in Portarlington and forcing business customers to drive to towns like Port Laoise and Tullamore for cash transactions will pose a security risk for these businesses at a time when Garda resources in these towns are already stretched to their limits. I implore the Minister of Finance and Government to intervene even at this late juncture, for common sense to prevail and for the safety and security issues of this decision to be put into the melting pot as part of the process so some time is bought until these factors are considered.