Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the protest outside the Bank of Ireland yesterday, in which I was pleased to take part. It arose from its disgraceful and vindictive decision to summarily close the bank account belonging to the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. It would be bad enough for any bank to make this decision, but Bank of Ireland is not any bank; it is a bank that was bailed out by taxpayers and in which we have a shareholding, yet it is now acting as the agent for the apartheid state of Israel. It is beyond a disgrace. As a Bank of Ireland customer my entire life, I will be changing my bank account and urge others to do the same. However, beyond this, I ask the Minister for Finance who represents taxpayers who do business with the bank to come into the Chamber to explain what he will do about its disgraceful, vindictive and malicious behaviour.