Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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423. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will request as a shareholder in a bank (details supplied) that it defer branch closures until the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. [13998/21]

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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432. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will review correspondence (details supplied); if his Department can contact the bank in question to request a pause to these closures as outlined; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14106/21]

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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439. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will intervene to stop the closure of bank branches (details supplied) given that the State is a major shareholder in the bank; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14223/21]

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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458. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans for the introduction of a moratorium on bank branch closures for the remainder of the Covid-19 pandemic in view of a recent announcement (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14549/21]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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506. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will request the delay of the closure of branches of a bank (details supplied) until after the Covid-19 pandemic given the importance of same during the pandemic; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15850/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 423, 432, 439, 458 and 506 together.

As the Deputies may be aware, as Minister for Finance, I have no role in the commercial decisions made by any bank in the State. This includes banks in which the State has a shareholding.

Decisions in this regard, including the management of branch networks, are the sole responsibility of the board and management of the banks, which must be run on an independent and commercial basis. The independence of banks in which the State has a shareholding is protected by Relationship Frameworks which are legally binding documents that cannot be changed unilaterally. These frameworks, which are publicly available, were insisted upon by the European Commission to protect competition in the Irish market. The Bank of Ireland Relationship Framework can be found at the following link:

Notwithstanding this, Bank of Ireland provided me with a briefing in advance which was consistent with its announcement on the matter on 1^stMarch.

Some of the key points contained in the announcement are:

- The decision to close these branches is in response to changing customer behaviour with a significant acceleration in digital banking.

- The branches closing are predominately self-service locations which do not offer a counter service.

- To preserve local access to physical banking for those who want it, the bank has agreed a new partnership with An Post which will allow personal and business customers use their local post office for a range of banking services – including to withdraw cash and make cash and cheque lodgements – at no additional cost.  The closing Bank of Ireland branches all have a post office within, on average, less than 500 meters.

- The bank confirmed that the new partnership with An Post will be available to all Bank of Ireland customers before any branch closes.

- Furthermore, the bank stated that there will be no closures for six months.

On staff, the bank commented that it will be working closely with all colleagues at these branches and will be setting out a range of options which include relocating to a different branch, moving to a new role in the bank, or voluntary redundancy for those who choose it.

The full Bank of Ireland announcement on the matter can be found at the following link: