Pat Casey (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and wish him the best of luck with his brief.

This important Bill comes from the 2022 retail banking review and aims to ensure everyone in the country can easily access cash which is an essential part of daily life. The Bill aims to ensure everyone can access cash easily, makes changes to cash infrastructure fairly and transparently and includes cash-in-transit providers and independent ATM operators under the Central Bank of Ireland regulation. The Minister for Finance can set rules to keep cash infrastructure at the same level it was at in 2022 by making sure a certain percentage of people are within 5 km to 10 km of an ATM, keeping a minimum number of ATMs per 100,000 of population and ensuring a certain percentage of people are within 5 km to 10 km of cash service points such as bank branches or post offices. The Central Bank of Ireland will review cash access after each census. If cash demands drop significantly or if the Minister for Finance so requests, population changes and cash demand shifts will be considered to allow the Minister to update the rules as needed.

Major banks will be responsible for meeting the cash access rules. The Bill addresses local problems where cash access might be difficult. The Central Bank will guide and direct entities to fix these issues. The Central Bank will check compliance quarterly and enforce measures to ensure the rules are followed. It will prepare regular reviews and reports and the Minister for Finance can update the rules as necessary. The Minister for Finance can regulate ATM fees to prevent excessive charges to ensure financial inclusion. ATM operators and cash-in-transit providers must be authorised and supervised by the Central Bank to ensure service resilience without undue burdens. The Central Bank will conduct and publish cost-benefit analyses of the proposed regulations to ensure they are justified and beneficial. Recent changes to the Bill have redefined definitions to allow for electronic communication making the legislation more robust and future proof.

The Finance (Provision of Access to Cash Infrastructure) Bill 2024 is a necessary and forward-thinking law. It will ensure our cash infrastructure remains strong and accessible to everyone, adapting to society's changing needs. There is no better example of this than the recent power failure in Spain and Portugal, which highlighted the critical importance of having access to cash. During that outage, many people were unable to make electronic payments, underscoring the vulnerability of a cashless society. This incident demonstrates why maintaining a robust cash infrastructure is essential to financial resilience and inclusion.