The Finance Minister says he has no indication that other banks intend outsourcing staff, following the lead of AIB who today announced they will outsource 170 I.T. jobs to other companies.

The Irish Bank Officials Association says AIB also has plans to outsource a further 200 staff.

Minister Michael Noonan says despite the bank being state owned he has no role to play in making decisions about the workforce. On Monday Mr Noonan announced that he believes Ireland can get back close to €29.5bn the state paid to bail out AIB Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB.

“I have no indication that that’s going to happen and there’s no connection with the announcements I made on Monday and AIB’s internal arrangements," he said.

“I understand as well that the jobs are not being outsourced in the sense of being taken out of the country. The jobs are being offered by a different, a new employer to the people who will be moving out of AIB employment and they’ll still be in the country,” Mr Noonan said.

Some 170 jobs at AIB are being outsourced to three separate companies.

The IT positions will go to Eircom, Integrity Solutions and Wipro. The jobs will all be based in Dublin.

The jobs minister says the outsourcing of the jobs is part of the difficult restructuring needed in our banks.

Minister Richard Bruton says he hopes workers will find work elsewhere.

It comes as the bank prepares to engage in pay talks for 7,500 employees.

Preliminary talks took place last month and a claim is expected to be lodged in February.

Yesterday, the Finance Minister Michael Noonan said he believed Ireland can get back nearly €29.5bn that the state pumped into AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB.

"The cost the taxpayer has incurred to secure this has been unprecedented," he told the Irish Times.

"Maximising the banks' value and ultimately the return of cash to the taxpayer is a key priority in 2015."

"Today I have appointed financial advisers to ensure we optimise the return on AIB, where more than €20bn of taxpayers' money has been invested."

"However, we will take our time in assessing all options to ensure the banks are operated in the best interest of the Irish economy and that the return to the taxpayer is maximised," he added.

Today, Richard Bruton commented on AIB outsourcing of jobs: