The Dealer was reminded of the slogan ‘AIB backs brave’ while waiting patiently for someone to answer one of the bank’s helplines recently.

“Brave: let’s talk about brave,” their snazzy advert intones.

“Brave gets up at six, zips up his fleece and is on the road while it’s still dark,” the advert tells us.

Sadly, Brave doesn’t answer phones.

“Thank you for calling AIB, a member of staff will be with you shortly,” is all The Dealer heard from the bank’s helpline for the first 10 minutes.

“Brave fixes gutters, fills tanks and coffee cups,” the advert continues.

Unfortunately, Brave still doesn’t answer phones.

“Thank you for calling AIB, a member of staff will be with you shortly,” The Dealer was still being told 20 minutes into the call.

“Brave keeps going through the weekends and evenings; and, as a result of Brave, wages get paid,” the advert maintains.

However, 45 minutes into the call none of AIB’s braves, or overpaid chiefs for that matter, had bothered to answer the call.

Ireland doesn’t really need brave banks.

In fact, the last time we had brave banks we ended up bailing them out.

But what the public would appreciate are banks that have sufficient respect and regard for their customers to answer the phones.