Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will give two clarifications. Yes, that is what I am saying. The position now, in the absence of legislation, is what we are going to address by bringing through the national payments strategy in respect of the acceptance of cash and the requirement to accept cash as tender. In the absence of this legislation, it is a commercial decision and there is no legal obligation. What we have, then, is a vacuum in this regard and it is a commercial decision for businesses. I will give the Deputy two examples from my area. One coffee shop there only accepts cash, while the coffee shop next door to it does not accept cash. In both instances, it is a commercial decision. We are saying both methods should be able to be accepted and it is the payments strategy on the acceptance of cash that will enable this to be the case.

Deputy Mattie McGrath pressed me for a more specific timeline than the one I gave regarding the legislation and access to cash. The reason we are not opposing this motion is that we are doing this now. We are literally in the process of legislating for and providing this measure. Perhaps this is not the same timeline. We are now in a research and engagement stage. We will have a targeted consultation this summer with industry and also with the Office of the Attorney General around the drafting in this regard. We will have heads of a general scheme of this legislation in the second half of this year, as I said in my contribution earlier. In summer 2024, having gone through pre-legislative scrutiny, we will have the final Bill capable of enactment.

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