Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

When the pillar banks and, indeed, the European Central Bank came calling for access to Ireland's cash in 2008, they were given that access. It cost the Irish State dearly and will go on costing the Irish State dearly for generations to come as our children and grandchildren remain saddled with hundreds of millions in debt that they had no hand, act or part in incurring. I have no great desire to rehash the past but I mention this because it highlights in dramatic fashion the social and financial debt that banks have with Irish society. We rightly demand a lot from them because a lot was given to them. When they were on the verge of collapse, the Irish people stumped up and covered the banks' reckless losses. There should be a willingness on the part of the pillar banks to honour the social contract between communities and banks. Instead, what we have seen is a reduction of services, increased charges, mortgage rate overcharges and debt write-downs for the elite. Our motion reflects some of these issues as a kind of background to the main issue but it also develops a series of concerns that arose in dramatic fashion last year when all of us here, including the Government, were apparently blind-sided by the decision of AIB to make dozens of its branches cashless operations. I did not hear enough condemnation of that move from the Government. My colleagues in the Rural Independent Group took a stand at that time and went to the headquarters of AIB to demand action and an end to the cashless society it was trying to impose on us.

It is important that there is proper oversight and regulation of the banks at all times. It is not good enough for Government Deputies to say they did not know what was happening, as I distinctly remember what was said that summer. The startled reaction of the then Minister for Finance, who was clearly not deemed important enough by the bank to be kept in the loop, was embarrassing enough, as was the frantic political reaction and the desire to avoid the impression that once again the banks had overstepped the mark and abused their positions of market dominance. I and my colleagues are here today to put a halt to the banks' gallop and to the mad rush to force everyone into digitalised or electronic methods of payment even when the express wish of most people is that we would have the freedom to use cash when we need or desire to do so.

There is, of course, a drive towards, and a greater take-up of, electronic forms of payment but let us not fool ourselves that this is because of some great desire to do everything online. Much of it is driven by the charges being demanded by banks of businesses and individuals lodging their own money. Let us take Bank of Ireland as an example. In 2021, it closed its branches in Edenderry, Banagher and Clara, along with 85 other outlets across the country, as part of the bank's ongoing transition to digital banking. For notes lodged or withdrawn, a person or business can be charged 60 cent per €100 but if notes are exchanged, that cost rises to €1.20 per €100. For the privilege of coin handling, the cost rises again to €3 per €100. Taken cumulatively, these figures give rise to levels of cost that place a real strain on people. The banks do not want your coins. They do not say that, of course, or at least not explicitly, but they tell us that in other ways, including the fees they charge. If the Government announced tomorrow that it was placing an additional €3 tax on every €100 earned, there would be uproar, and rightly so. When the banks do it, we are meant to accept it as the price we pay for the privilege of doing business with them. That seems to be the attitude.

Our motion reflects the real fears and concerns of people with respect to digital surveillance of their finances. This is not some kind of conspiracy theory or paranoid fantasy. It is a real and legitimate concern. There is now almost no area of human activity or human life that is not vulnerable to financial or governmental monitoring of one kind or another. Physical cash offers privacy in a way that electronic cash never can. This is important for people and ought to be maintained. It also offers our older people relief from having to navigate the online financial world. We know from a report by Age Action Ireland that over half of Irish people aged between 65 and 74 have never used the Internet. Age Action Ireland also points to the fact that although Ireland has an international brand as a tech leader, and is home to some of the world's biggest brands, current levels of digital literacy among older people continue to lag far behind our nearest neighbour and comparable EU states.

Our post office network is very dear and precious to rural communities. Let us not undermine them in any way by taking action towards a cashless society. We must have access to cash. It is at the heart of communities to have access to cash through their credit union or post office and, indeed, that access is also provided to our SMEs, which are vital to our local economy.

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