A man and a woman have been arrested following an attempted "tiger kidnapping" in north Co Dublin, this morning.
A Garda spokeswoman said the incident was reported shortly after 9.30am when a bank official and his wife, believed to be in their fifteies, and their two grown-up sons were taken hostage.
The assistant manager of the Bank of Ireland in Balbriggan was instructed to remove a quantity of money from a bank and deposit it in another undisclosed location.
Gardai subsequently stopped a car in Julianstown, Co Meath. A man and a woman were arrested at the scene and are being held under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act..
The family were found an hour later locked in their car, parked in Drogheda. The stolen cash has not yet been recovered
The Garda investigation is being led by Assistant Commissioner Al McHugh.
In a statement released this afternoon Bank of Ireland confirmed that it was the bank at the centre of the raid.
The bank said it's "priority is for the safety and well-being of the staff and family involved in this incident and all of the bank's support services have been made available to them".
Meanwhile the Taoiseach's intervention has been called for by the general secretary of Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA), Mr Larry Broderick.
Mr Broderick said: "This is the fourth incident of a 'Tiger Kidnapping' in less than a month and IBOA members throughout Ireland are genuinely concerned for their safety and well-being as a result of these robberies."
The IBOA has also called for the establishment of a joint working group involving the Gardai, Department of Justice, banking and security industry as well as staff representatives,
to monitor developments in the general area of security within the financial services sector.
"It should be remembered that it is frontline Bank staff whose lives and that of their families, are being put in danger by the actions of criminals and the failure of security systems.," added Mr Broderick.