John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the sentiments expressed by Senator Norris regarding the banks. It seems quite obvious that the banks are steering people away from their doors. They are striving to get everybody, including the elderly, to use machines. We saw what happened last week and they had to row back on another effort to keep people away from their doors. I do not blame the staff of the banks but this seems to be policy coming from the highest levels of the banking sector.

Last week, my assistant tried to buy a bank draft in a bank in Dublin. First, he could not pay for it in cash. Second, he had to give a reason he wanted the bank draft, which in this case was for a wedding. Third, he could not make it payable to the happy couple because he had to know whether they had a joint account. After 20 minutes of frustration, he went across the road to the post office and got a post office draft in 45 seconds with no questions asked. If one rings one's local bank, and everyone has their local bank number, one will get through to Dublin so the banks are doing everything in their power to frustrate people. A lady from Elphin who wanted to get Australian dollars when she went into the bank was told that it did not have them but to ring back later. She rang back later and got through to Dublin. What are they going to do for her if she wants Australian dollars?

What appears to be happening here is that the banks are trying to move to staffless and machine-led operations. Down the road, they will then turn around to the people and say "Because you didn't use us, you're going to lose us." These are the facts of the matter. I believe that people should move to their local credit unions and post offices. These outfits view them as customers while the banks view them as a nuisance. We should remember that during the crash, the credit unions got into difficulty to the tune of €25 million. The banks got into difficulty to the tune of €64 billion yet the same heavy-handed regulations now apply to the credit unions as to the banks.A debate on this issue at some point would be worthy and warranted.