Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It being local enterprise week, I pay tribute to the Clare local enterprise office, LEO, under the leadership of Mr. Padraic McElwee. It has done great work, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, in supporting businesses who found they needed to change the way they did business. I encourage anybody in County Clare with a good idea to make contact with the LEO because it gives great assistance to people.

Like others, I am disgusted with the Bank of Ireland announcement this morning. Three branches in County Clare will be closed: Miltown Malbay, Kilkee and Tulla. These are busy areas that require banking services. This is on top of Ulster Bank announcing it was closing its branch network and pulling out of Ireland. The mobile Ulster Bank van, which has given great support to people who live in or come on their holidays to rural County Clare, is also gone. We have a situation where three branches of Bank of Ireland, a branch of Ulster Bank in Ennis and the mobile Ulster Bank are gone.

Like everybody else, I appreciate that technology has moved on and many people are banking online. However, there are a significant number of people in County Clare who are not banking online. There are also people who come to visit County Clare. We are promoting tourism and it is identified as a vehicle that will get us out of recession. However, we cannot provide banking services to people visiting Miltown Malbay, Kilkee and Tulla or give them an infrastructure to come in and change their currencies and do other banking essentials, including witnessing signatures, certifying accounts and opening accounts, which need a physical bank to be available for people to walk into. It is a blow to west Clare, east Clare and rural Ireland. We need the Minister to come to the House and give us his thoughts on what can be done to reverse this appalling situation.