Labour Party Spokesperson on Finance, Joan Burton has said that the IFSRA and AIB reports published today on overcharging in Allied Irish Bank are a ‘shocking indictment of banking malpractice’. Clearly, there are many questions still to be answered.

“The comments from IFSRA about practices in AIB are extremely damning.

“I welcome the announcement that the AIB is to refund over-charged customers to the tune of €34.2million. But this is only stage one of the process and I expect that we are far from the end of these revelations.

“The single biggest question which remains unanswered today is why these practices went on for so long within AIB and why nobody seemed to do anything about it. It is a comprehensive answer to that question which will go some way towards restoring confidence in AIB and the Irish banking sector as a whole”, she added.