Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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171. To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the fact that banking institutions and the post office are unwilling to accept travellers cheques; his views that this is appropriate; if his attention has been further drawn to the fact that this is having a detrimental impact on the tourism economy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24010/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I, as Minister for Finance, have no statutory role in relation to the issues raised by the Deputy. The Deputy will no doubt appreciate that the provision of services by banks, including the cashing of travellers cheques is a commercial decision for individual lending institutions.

The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has advised me that An Post does not accept travellers cheques. It would be very difficult for An Post to commercially justify the provision of such a service due to prolonged clearance times for such cheques, risk of fraud, the growth and development of alternative payment channels and the absence of any perceived significant level of demand for such a service.

Travellers cheques are effectively bank drafts usually drawn on a non-domestic bank, and as such can only be validated as authentic through the international bank clearing system. Non-domestic travellers cheques could take several weeks/months to clear depending on the country of origin e.g. a standard cheque drawn on a UK bank can take up to 6 weeks to clear.

As the appearance of travellers cheques differ from bank to bank and country to country, An Post could be exposed to accepting fraudulently manipulated or stolen travellers cheques.

An Post and the banks accept most major debit and credit cards used internationally and these services are available to tourists.