Gilmore defends the need for redundancies

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, standing over the 2,500 redundancies at AIB, said there had to be reductions in the numbers working in Irish banks.

But responding to the state-owned bank’s decision to slash staff numbers, he said efforts were under way to create new types of employment in the financial sector in general.

“The strategy we are pursuing is one of attracting investment into that sector,” he told the Dáil.