Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Rural Independent Group for tabling this Private Members' motion. I support it. While the move away from cash during Covid was understandable, cash remains an important part of life for many people in this country. There is real need for cash in society, whether it be for elderly people who might not know how to access digital services, people with disabilities who need access to cash services or people who have spent their entire lives budgeting through cash. There are also the issues raised by Deputy Pringle regarding women and domestic violence where cash is very important.

There are broad groups of people for whom cash is a fundamental pillar of how they make or raise money. These include charitable donations, tips, busking, homeless people and even communions and confirmations. Access to cash is central to the income of many groups of people. Cash has a limited buy-in. People do not need to purchase the newest smart phone or watch to have access to cash. People do not need to pay monthly phone data bills to have access to cash. Not everyone can afford the buy-in that digitalisation of payment and banking requires. Cash has much lower operating costs for consumers. It will always be a cheaper option for those on low pay or fixed incomes and those who are struggling to get by.

There is also a problem with digital literacy. There are many people who did not grow up with access or exposure to technology. They would be left out by any significant move to a cashless society. If people do not have this literacy but are pushed into using online payments and banking they will be far more susceptible to fraud and cybercrime. Added to this are the many people who have been using cash as a way of budgeting their whole lives. They take money out on a Thursday or Friday and that is their money for the week. We are facing a cost-of-living crisis, soaring rents and mortgages, massive inflation and large rises in bills. Any move to push people away from how they have been budgeting their entire lives should be opposed.

It is an easy fix to legislate to make sure cash is accepted as payment. France has laws enforcing cash being accepted as payment. The US is looking into federal law after many states have passed laws requiring cash payment. This is the easy fix. What is far more difficult and far more important is to make sure that people have access to cash. We cannot allow the banks a backhanded way of cutting costs by removing important services and raising fees to discourage cash. We have lost far too many banking services in communities throughout the country. In 2022 Ireland had 8.63 bank branches per 100,000 people. In the UK the number of bank branches per 100,000 people was 10.4, in New Zealand it was 21.4, in Portugal it was 32.8 and in Canada it was 20.2. This is a clear example of the need for real regulation of banks to provide proper widespread services and the development of a real public banking system so we can make sure every community in Ireland has access not only to cash services but to all banking services.

We need legislation to ensure that cash can be used but, far more importantly, we need to make sure banks are regulated properly to ensure cash is easily accessible and widely distributed in communities. If there are any gaps that need to be filled in that regulation, that should happen through Government support and services like post offices, supports for credit unions and a real and serious push to set up a public banking system.

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