IT staff want bank’s plans clarified

FRUSTRATED information technology (IT) workers want Bank of Ireland to tell them the 600 Irish-based jobs will not be outsourced to India.

The Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) yesterday demanded that Bank of Ireland (BOI) senior management clarify its future plans for two of its IT divisions and the 600 IT specialists, earning between 30,000 and 40,000 a year, employed by the bank in Dublin and Wicklow.

IBOA industrial relations officer Brendan Kenny said they have grave concerns that hundreds of Irish IT jobs could be outsourced to India.

However, a BoI spokesperson said while the company is investigating the possibility of outsourcing IT work, no jobs were in jeopardy. Mr Kenny explained that two significant Bank of Ireland IT divisions are under threat, BoI IT Solutions and the infrastructural subsidiary, ItSIS, a former joint venture company with Perot Systems, which the BoI recently failed to merge with its AIB counterpart. Mr Kenny said it is outrageous Bank of Ireland are considering outsourcing jobs to another continent at a time when all agencies of the State are

endeavouring to retain jobs in the

sector.

“In this context, we have sought the involvement of the Tánaiste in order to try to retain these jobs in Ireland.

Such a development within BoI would be in sharp contrast to the strong opinions expressed by the bank’s chief executive Michael Soden on maintaining the integrity and heart of its operations management on domestic shores, where the Bank of Ireland

derived over half a billion euro in profits last year and have announced increased interims this week.

“It is only some weeks ago that Mr Soden was promoting a patriotic

perspective in his Ireland Inc public statements,” Mr Kenny concluded.