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Statement by Minister McGrath on Bank of Ireland systems outage

The Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath TD, has responded to the technical outage at Bank of Ireland that emerged yesterday affecting customers using the mobile app and 365Online service. 

Minister McGrath commented, “I have asked the Central Bank of Ireland to establish a full account of what happened, why it happened and what will be done to avoid a repeat. My officials have been in contact with the Central Bank of Ireland and Bank of Ireland today.

Given our growing dependence on technology for the delivery of financial services, I have asked my officials to engage with the Central Bank on its assessment of the robustness of this Bank of Ireland incident, and more broadly the robustness of the technology systems used by regulated, customer-facing financial service providers here in Ireland, and whether any further steps are required to reduce the risk of outages that impact on customers.

From my point of view as Minister for Finance, financial service providers have to do whatever is required to ensure continuity of service for their customers. This is vital for the normal functioning of our society and our economy. Disruption to banking services can have a significant effect on people’s personal lives and on the running of businesses. Customers rightly have an expectation of a high quality of service and to be able to have uninterrupted access to services.” 

ENDS