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Bank of Ireland apologises for second payment glitch in a month

A woman leaves the Central Bank of Ireland in the Temple Bar area of Dublin November 7, 2013. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Bank of Ireland was forced to apologise for a technology glitch for the second time in a month on Thursday after it led to delays in salary and pension payments reaching customers. Salaries of thousands of public sector workers were also delayed by up to 24 hours at the end of July when payments originating from Bank of Ireland, the only domestic lender to avoid a full state bailout, failed to go through on time. On Thursday, wages and pension payments for some public sector staff, including teachers and officials at Ireland's finance department, were delayed. Bank of Ireland said all payments would hit customer accounts by the end the day. "Bank of Ireland confirms that all other banks have now received any delayed payment originating from Bank of Ireland," the bank said in a statement. "The bank extends an apology to those who experienced a delay today." Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher said earlier this month that the initial problem was an isolated incident when a file did not get processed and had been fixed. He said the bank had invested very heavily in technology. A computer systems fiasco at Royal Bank of Scotland's Irish unit, Ulster Bank, two years ago cost the bank tens of millions of euros in compensation after the problem took a month to resolve. A member of parliament from the governing coalition said Bank of Ireland customers should consider moving their accounts elsewhere if the bank failed to fix the problem permanently. "We need an assurance from Bank of Ireland that this issue will be sorted promptly. If that's not the case, people should look elsewhere, if this situation was to deteriorate further," Labour Party MP Michael McCarthy told national broadcaster RTE. "It is simply not good enough that this should happen once, let alone twice." (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by David Clarke)