Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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246. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will intervene in the timing of the branch closures by a bank (details supplied) by replicating the actions of the UK financial sector regulator which will mean the pausing of any closures during the current pandemic; his views on the fact that persons will be greatly impacted by the withdrawal of banking services in their locality at a most inopportune time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54267/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy 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.

Notwithstanding this, Bank of Ireland provided me with a briefing in advance of its original announcement to close branches which issued on 1^stMarch of this year. The briefing the bank provided me with was consistent with its announcement.

Some of the key points contained in the announcement were:

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

- The branches closing were predominately self-service locations which did 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 would be available to all Bank of Ireland customers before any branch closes.