Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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207. To ask the Minister for Finance the outcome of the work of the Banking Forum to date; if specific consideration is being given to the need to ensure that large parts of rural Ireland are not deprived of banking services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63114/22]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy may be aware that the Retail Banking Review Team, in line with schedule, submitted the draft Review to me in November. Having considered the Review in detail, I brought it to Government on 29th November to seek its approval to publish the Review and to implement the 34 recommendations contained therein.

Following consideration of the Review, the Government duly gave the approvals I sought and, accordingly, the recommendations are now Government policy.

Access to banking services, particularly the ability to withdraw and deposit cash, was a key issue identified by the Review and a number of recommendations address this issue. My Department will now develop legislation and prepare heads of a bill in 2023 which will include requiring banks, that meet objective criteria, to provide reasonable access to cash.

Reasonable access to cash will be defined in consultation with the Central Bank and other stakeholders. A separate recommendation states that, pending development of this legislation, banks should seek to preserve their customers' access to cash services at December 2022 levels.

The recommendations approved also cover issues in relation to access to branches which the Central Bank should address under the Consumer Protection Code. This includes:

- Requiring banks to submit board approved assessments to the Central Bank when they are planning to significantly alter branch services, or when planning to close branches;

- Requiring banks to conduct ex-post assessments, to include a customer survey, after the change or closure and a requirement to rectify material issues; and

- Increasing the notice period from one to four months for significant change, and from two to six for branch closures.

The Review also outlined the important role that An Post and the credit union sector play in providing access to financial services across the State. With regard to the latter, the Review highlighted that the credit union sector is well placed to provide even more competition at scale given the strength of its brand and locations across the State. It also has the capital and deposits needed to provide such additional competition.

The Review called on the credit union sector and its leadership to develop a strategic plan that enables the sector to safely and sustainably provide a universal product and service offering, which is community based, and which is offered to all credit union members, directly or on a referral basis. The strategic plan should take the reforms in the Credit Union (Amendment) Bill 2022 into account and the Review said that the Department should consider further legislative changes if necessary to achieve a universal product offering and associated business model transformation.

The Review is available on the Department's website with the full list of recommendations immediately following the Executive Summary.