Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 24 May 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection
Safe Deposit Boxes and Related Deposits Bill 2022: Discussion
Mr. Kenneth Jordan:
If there was substantial amounts of cash involved, our proposal on that was if it was clear that there were items of value, we would balance the right to property with the public good. At the moment, the evidence in the Deloitte report is that the value is not there so by actually putting in place legislation that would give the State the right to take those funds, the balance is not quite right. If the bank goes through these and finds valuable items, that is when we actually know how to progress. On the issue of cash, I would imagine that if we find an item of significant value, it is probably of national significance as well. It is very much an issue of finding cash deposits. Again, if we are opening boxes from 200 years ago, it is the case that substantial amounts then were hundreds and thousands and it gets really complicated to work out their value today. The suggestion on our part was that if we have a look at these boxes and we find dormant items that are valuable, we will work out what to do from there and figure out whether it is feasible to put them into the Dormant Accounts Fund.
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