AIB customers angry at a decision to close a sub-office in Co Tipperary for two days a week have begun an occupation of the premises.
The group of five locals entered the bank in Killenaule before it closed for business on Monday afternoon and remained overnight. They were continuing to occupy the premises yesterday.
About 20 others, many of them from the local business community, were picketing the building in support of the occupants.
They expressed the fear that the decision to curtail opening hours was the first step towards closure of the premises.
This was denied by a spokeswoman for the bank, who said opening hours had been changed to meet customer demand. The premises was to be refurbished in the next year or two and AIB had no intention of closing it, she said.However, picketers outside the premises claimed the decision to close on Tuesdays and Wednesdays would damage the local economy.
One of the occupiers, Mr John O'Dwyer, a butcher, said they were determined to stay until there was a satisfactory resolution, which would involve the bank staying opening for at least four days a week.
He and the others had had a comfortable night, he added, and had been provided with breakfast by bank staff yesterday morning.
One of those protesting outside, Mr Gerry Spain, a pharmacist whose business is across the street from the bank, said the closure on Tuesdays and Wednesdays would lead to a loss of business in the area, with people being forced to go to larger towns such as Cashel and Tipperary.
The AIB spokeswoman, however, said the Killenaule outlet, a sub-office of its Fethard branch, had been open from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It was open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays.
Business had been slow on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so it had been decided to close on those days and extend opening hours to 4 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday instead.
She added that it was unlikely the bank would reverse its decision.