Allied Irish Banks (AIB) has informed me that staff numbers are as follows:
May 2010* — 23,175.
May 2011 — 13,929.
May 2012 — 14,443.
However, in May 2012 total staff included 1,703 temporary workers employed to deal with short term business requirements and many of these temporary staff were taken on by the Bank to assist customers in difficulty.
As the Deputy will be aware, AIB has announced a redundancy programme with 2,500 job losses expected over the coming months. It is deeply regrettable, for all concerned, that the proposed action of shedding of jobs, even on a voluntary basis in these challenging economic times, at AIB as announced, has had to be taken. This is an inevitable consequence of the necessary restructuring of the banking system to render it fit to better serve personal and business customers throughout the economy.
*2010 numbers include BZWBK staff of 9,631. This subsidiary was subsequently disposed by the Group on 1 April 2011.