Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 67: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of job losses he expects in the Irish banking sector arising from the restructuring of the sector. [14156/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, a profound restructuring of the Irish banking system is underway. The two most distressed institutions in the market – Anglo and INBS – are being merged and their remaining loans will be worked out over an extended period of time. Under the Government's strategy for reorganising the Irish banking system and consistent with the terms of the EU/ IMF Programme all of the other institutions are implementing very substantial deleveraging plans under which they will dispose of or run down very substantial volumes of non-core assets. The sector is also being consolidated with the acquisition of EBS by AIB. Each institution will be required to produce a detailed restructuring plan for submission to the European Commission by the end of July 2011 to demonstrate how they intend to return to viability to ensure their long-term sustainability and stability in the market. Each institution will carefully examine its future human resource needs in the context of the preparation of their restructuring plans. It is, of course, a matter for the boards and senior management teams of the bank to determine their future employment levels. In view of the importance of maintaining an appropriate arms length relationship between the State and the banks insofar as such matters are concerned, I trust the Deputy will understand that it would not be appropriate for me to speculate on the outcome of this process.