Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I completely endorse the idea of green Friday. The amount of money that is leaving this country day after day is frightening, particularly as we are heading into black Friday and cyber Monday, when we will see courier vans going around every town, village and estate. We have to send a strong message to everybody to support our local businesses and shops that support our local communities. They are the businesses to which we turn, time after time, to support community events. Now is the time that they need our support.

A young woman was left stranded at the side of the road at an isolated bus stop a few nights ago. What sin did she commit to fail to get entry onto a Dublin coach? She offered to pay cash because she did not have a card. She was refused entry to the bus and left stranded. There are two noteworthy things about that. It is appalling that any bus driver would go off and leave any young woman on her own at night at an isolated bus stop. Any such woman is vulnerable. I totally support the Covid-19 regulations and the suggestion to try to use contactless payments when possible. However, to move away from a situation where cash is valued and important is completely wrong. The only institutions to which that would serve as an asset are the banks, which will continue to make money. We all learned about how to use money and its value by using coins and notes. We cannot get away from that. Many people find it far easier to budget using cash rather than credit or debit cards.We need to send a strong message to all businesses and institutions that while we support the use of contactless payments at the moment, it is important to continue to use cash when we can.