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FINANCE MINISTER MICHAEL McGrath has said “cash is here to stay” as he launched a public consultation looking for people’s views on a national payments strategy.
He said he was finalising the heads of a Bill that would enshrine people’s access to cash, which would involve defining an appropriate level of cash needed in communities.
He said this would include defining what obligation there was to provide people with access to cash, and deciding how far was “reasonable” to have to travel to access an ATM.
“That does involve some difficult choices and decisions that have to be made,” he said.
McGrath said it was a “real consideration” for him to address “the potential risk of financial exclusion”, and that he did not want to see less access to cash than there currently was.
“What is a fair and reasonable level of access to cash? It should certainly be no less than what we have now, and that’s a bottom line in respect of the availability that’s currently available, should certainly not be allowed to diminish and we’re examining what further steps we need to take to vindicate that.”
He also said it would involve the regulation of ATMs to ensure they were “stocked and that they’re properly maintained”.
Speaking to reporters today, he said that cash needed to remain in Ireland “because it forms an important part of the day-to-day life of many people across our country”.
“It’s important that we don’t force change on people and I recognise that change will continue.
“We will see increasing adoption of digital methods of payment, that’s normal, and there’s what do we need to do there in terms of security and making sure that such methods are accessible to everyone.
“Cash will continue to have a very significant role to play into the future. I think it is about time now that we legislated for that, we define what that right is and we set it out in the laws of the country.”
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This can only be good thing. Great that our government recognises the importance of maintaining all existing payments methods, and the importance of having cash in society.
@Fintan Stack: Nice u-turn by FFG, must be an election coming up.
@Mr Inbetween: How is this a u-turn?
@Kilkenny Proud: The Banks would love a cashless society, NCT tried to make customers pay by card but had to u-turn. The Banks own FFG.
@Fintan Stack: FFG always liked cash sterling ect ect ect
@Fintan Stack: Anyone who believes a politician is for the wind. Cash is going, banks want it gone, and these breezblocks can do nothing about it.
@David Murray: FF mainly
Well done Puma, better late than never.
@David: so you agree with Hamas coming in slaughtering infants kids elderly , raping and executing as they go through
@David: did you even bother to read the article?
@Pat Quinn: Don’t be silly. Read the headline and Juno straight to the comments (of a different article). That’s how it works!!
@Sal Paradise: Also, don’t check comments for typos :)
@SW20: Hamas would be slaughtering no one if the Israelis had not driven the Palestinian people out of their homeland.
Using terrorist organiaations like Haganah, Irgun and The Stern Gang at first, then state terrorism.
All this violence is caused by the Israeli colonial invader.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Hahahaha nice joke terrorists supporter.
The Sunnah of islam explicitly says multiple times to kill jews and christian.
You arent smart, as usual with irish supporter terrorist.
@SW20: Indeed, also Irish people are 100% ignorant and Stv pid regarding this subject.
I burned flag of Palestine all day. Next step is to burn them as they want to behead us.
@SW20: Where in gods name do you get that abstract thoughts from.
No, to clarify, I don’t.
I do support Puma’s decision though.
On a side note, I would also welcome the banning of Israeli products in this country.
@SW20: BTY, Israel did enact their “Hannibal directive” that they claimed to have ceased in 2016, that led to multiple deaths of their own citizens, that is a fact!
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: So you want it to go back to the UK controlling it as Palestine was never a country. The Palestinians shouldn’t have started this battle (it’s been at war with Isreal since 1948) if they didn’t want the consequences.
@Pat Quinn: No, I didn’t, I read the headline. I will never read a single article on this site, nor any msm site regarding either Ukraine or Israel.
The strangle hold that both conflicts have on the media reporting the truth is the reason for why.
@No To Refugees: Are you drunk, if you are, I would get away from that keyboard, you will land yourself in trouble if you haven’t already!
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Not agreeing with any of the comments here, but I think we should actually look back in history and see who actually created the state of Israel.
The UN did in November 1947. UN resolution 181.
A little bit of history that a lot of people want to forget, including the UN.
Looks like Bertie Ahern is making a comeback, must want to spend a couple of quid his friends paddy the plasterer and tomy the chippy collected for him in brown envelopes!
Why Ukrainians expect free handouts? 220€ a week for just be here, pathetic. It should be 0.
@No To Refugees: Imagine being an Irish worker after losing their job and getting the same amount but having to pay all their bills out of that rather than just having it for spending money like the Ukranians.
@The next small thing: It’s crazy. No wonder they come here from other safe countries. Almost 900€ of free money along side free accommodation.
It’s not protection at this point, it’s a blatant middle finger to actual working people.
@No To Refugees: Minister says numbers from Ukraine will reduce due to changes in welfare payments. PR campaign to tell Ukrainians the realities of rental market in Ireland. Taoiseach says payments to be brought into line with other countries in europe as the current system is unsustainable. The penny has dropped and they have come round to the same conclusions that previously was only the rantings of xenophobes, racists and the far right and it seems that the laws they used for justification no longer apply. Lets hope they can get things together now and create proper systems and services for those in dire situations needing refuge and shelter.
The church gate collection would suffer for starters.
Cash is gonna be expensive soon.
@Louis Jacob: rogue comment
Who would listen to these people, are you not sick of the PR company our politics has become? These people are helpless just like everyone else. This all comes down to banks and what they want and when push comes to shove (after the election usually) they will roll back and fully support a cashless society, after all the stand to make a fortune from it.
Don’t let the banks make the rules And take away our freedom nothing illegal It’s legal tender and it’s printed on the notes. Don’t foreget it
No point in commenting here. Seems only rubbish commenting. Nice one for keeping cash going though as they say “Cash is King”but then again maybe I’ve offended or God forbid insulted someone somewhere by using words like “Cash or maybe even “King” or “Is oops did i say God ?
Journal App keeps crushing when scroll down the articles, anyone has same problem?
@Ní neart go cur le chéile.: No, but for some reason I can only comment on the very bottom of a thread. Been that way for a while. Probably keeps me out of arguments to be fair.
@Louis Jacob: That happens to me a lot too. I get the following message box “An error occured, please try again”.
When it does produce an error message, I have to open a different browser to comment.
@Louis Jacob: typical journal
@Louis Jacob: The comment you made above was a reply to another poster?????
@Ní neart go cur le chéile.: crushing? No….but it can be soul destroying.
I hope that the politions who attended the Christmas party at the US embassy tonight enjoyed the meal, I believe the bloody red soup went down well
That’s it, cash is a goner after that comment.
Cash will always be there thanks to drug dealers and criminals. Yippee!
Hostage to fortune?
have your say