Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

The Finance (Provision of Access to Cash Infrastructure) Act 2025 is the result of a recommendation in the Department of Finance’s 2022 review of retail banking. The objectives of the Act are to ensure sufficient and effective access to cash in the State; to put in place a framework to manage future changes to the cash infrastructure in a fair, orderly, equitable and transparent manner; and to bring cash-in-transit providers, CITs, and independent ATM deployers within the regulatory perimeter of the Central Bank of Ireland.

The legislation will do so by allowing the Minister for Finance to prescribe in regulations access-to-cash criteria with regard to December 2022 levels initially, taking account of the exits of Ulster Bank and KBC. The regions used will be the eight regions of our country as defined by Eurostat.

The Act will require ATM deployers to be registered with the Central Bank of Ireland and provides the Central Bank with regulation-making powers relating to matters such as reporting requirements, service and other matters such as denomination stocking. The Act was signed into law only in May; work will now begin to commence the legislation. I expect the key regulations to be completed in the third quarter of this year.

While I am very much aware of the changing attitudes as regards the use of cash, I understand that for many people in our country using cash is still the main way they want to conduct payments. This speaks to an issue of inclusion within our financial system. I do not see it at all as being a technical matter; I see it as really important. If you find out you are not able to pay a bill or not able to use your money to make important transactions, it just adds to a feeling of not being part of our financial system. I do not want to see that happen.

See this speech in context