Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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490. To ask the Minister for Finance if as a major shareholder in a bank (details supplied), he will instruct the bank to withdraw its proposal to impose non-overdraft account fees on non-business account holders; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18858/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, as Minister for Finance I have no role to play in commercial decisions made by any bank, including product pricing and fee structures. This applies equally to the banks in which the State has a shareholding. Decisions in this regard 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.