Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Over the last number of years, in this country and other countries in Europe, we heard great talk about a cashless society, where everyone was moving to cards and going away from chequebooks. I know the Taoiseach is an admirer of European policy and he has bought into this idea of a cashless society.

Fine Gael often talks about SMEs. They are the backbone of business across the country. At the moment, the banks have a new Houdini act which they are doing around Ireland with farmers and people who always had chequebooks, telling them of this great idea of a business debit card. When businesses heard of a debit card, it was always in terms of a transaction cost of approximately 17 cent to the business, and they bought into that. Sadly, I have been contacted by many businesses around the country in the past few weeks because the banks have been pushing those new business cards onto farmers and businesses and they have been accepted by merchants and marts around the country. A person can spend €10,000 in a mart on five or six animals, pay for meal at a merchant's or be in the process of building a house with costs of €40,000, €50,000 or €60,000 at the local hardware business. Those cards have been put forward but it is to the detriment of small businesses, who have found a huge charge is being put upon them. One person telephoned me last week to tell me that in the last month, they have lost €2,800 by accepting these cards.

See this speech in context