Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the issue of bank dividends. Like all companies, banks have been affected by Covid, but the situation needs to be put in a certain context. For the decade running up to the Covid situation, bank profits were rising. There were significant bank profits year on year for a decade. For example, in 2019, nearly 15% of all dividends paid out by European companies were paid out by banks. Covid affected them earlier this year but, from what I can see, they have been making a good recovery since then. For example, in the third quarter of this year, BNP Paribas made net quarterly profits of €1.9 billion. On the other hand, the situation for bank workers has not been as good. Some 60,000 jobs were lost in 2019 and 50,000 branches were shut in the decade from 2008 to 2018. That has been reflected in Ireland. Members of the committee met representatives of the bank workers' trade union recently and were given information about the situation in Ulster Bank. Some €3.5 billion in dividends has been paid from Ulster Bank to NatWest since 2016, but now 3,000 jobs and 88 branches - the entire network - are on the line as a result of the NatWest review. In the Irish banking sector as a whole, there are 6,000 jobs on the line. I believe the profits that have been made or are being made by banks should be invested back into jobs, services and a better society. There has been a ban on the payment of dividends since March, but that ban is due to end in January, as I understand it. Does the Commissioner support and intend to extend that ban on bank dividends or is it intended to lift the ban in January?