Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am proud to say I grew up old school and that I am a self-employed person. I can go back to times when my father, God rest him, and I used to go to get a few supplies. We would go to Limerick or wherever and before he left the yard, whether it was for hardware supplies or whatever, he always gave the man who loaded the trailer a few bob, or the price of a pint as it was called. I have been self-employed and when it came to Christmas or a birthday, I always gave somebody a few bob in cash, or a few bob for luck.

I built a building in Croagh many years ago for Mr. Micheál O’Connor. When I finished the job and he paid me, I gave him a few bob cash for luck. He asked me if I had any change because he said he would like to hear his luck. That was a tradition in our country and one I will carry forward until the day I die. It is a tradition we have always had.

We have elderly people whose weekly chore was to collect their few bob of a pension. They got their few bob, they went to the post office and then to the local shop and the local butchers to buy a few things. If they wanted to go to the credit union to put in a few pounds, that is what they did. All we are doing with a cashless society is excluding people from going to the post office to do their business. It is excluding people from going to their local shops. It is excluding people from a tradition Ireland had where people went out, met other people and did their business and where they always knew what they had.

We have seen what the likes of Debenhams did to people. People thought they were ordering online from their local store but they were ordering from the UK. At Christmas time, people think they are supporting the local Smyths shop by getting a few toys there. If they order online, that money does not go through the Irish system but it goes straight to the UK. The presents or whatever come in from the UK and the money is taken out of this economy. We see how many businesses have closed down in rural towns and villages because people want to go cashless.

We see what has happened in the hospitality sector. Recently my wife and I spent one night in a place because she had received vouchers for her birthday. I talked to many of the staff there who told me that since payments have become cashless, they do not get tips any more. They do not get the tips we might have given them when we went out for a bite to eat to thank them for their service and because they might have been on a lower wage.

If we become a cashless society, it will destroy this country and will destroy people from the point of view of them going out and meeting people. We also see what the banks are taking in charges. When it comes to somebody buying something in a shop, a charge is imposed on the shopkeeper or whatever business it is. It can be a percentage of a transaction, which is taking from their profits.

I spoke to a person in a hairdressers recently. They told me that somebody had got their hair done and wanted to leave the hairdresser a tip but they had no cash on them, so they paid by card. Given the card system that was there, what happened was that the employer had to pay the tip and had to pay tax on the tip paid by card.

In this country, cash is king. Cash is our culture. Cash means we can be respectful to people around us. When a child was born we always had a tradition of putting a few pounds underneath the pillow in the pram. That is a tradition. That is what we used to do. That is what people in Ireland do. All the large companies are taking the money out of this country and are closing down our small businesses because it is becoming a cashless society. As a member of the Rural Independent Group I am totally opposed to moving to a cashless society. We need cash, we need to recognise traditions and we need to support businesses that need cash. We need to support the people who get their tips in cash because many of the card systems do not allow for this and people have to do without those funds.

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