James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Okay, I am sorry to cut Mr. Hogan off. I thank him very much. The next question I want to ask contradicts what I was coming at in my first line of questioning. It is a concern, however. Earlier this year, there was a significant reduction in Bank of Ireland's cash services across the State and the closure of numerous bank branches. Subsequently, Ulster Bank pulled out of the Irish market, or is in the process of doing so. On top of that, AIB had to reverse its plans, under huge pressure from me and others in this Oireachtas, which would have unfortunately left vast sections of the population without any banking services. Major towns in rural Ireland, including Youghal where I am from, would have had no cash banking services in those. These are towns of 10,000 people. That was the case right across the Twenty-six Counties.

I want to get a sense of the Department of Finance's view on cash. Is it obsolete? Is it departmental policy to try to reduce the amount of cash in use? Does the Department have an issue with it? When the Central Bank of Ireland is asked about these issues, it is very slow to answer. It is a concern. From the Department of Finance's point of view, however, does cash have a role to play in the day-to-day running of society? Small businesses may have an unspoken practice where people might not make that much money and they are not always fully compliant, but this is probably necessary to maintain some bit of activity in rural main streets. I know this is a very abstract line of questioning. However, what is the Department's policy on cash over the next ten years? Is the Department concerned about what happened last year and this year, which seems to be a collapse in community banking services from the commercial banking sector?