Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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187. To ask the Minister for Finance the way in which the State implements the EU Directive on Payment Accounts' Directive 2014/92/EU obligation that "payment accounts with basic features are available to the widest possible range of consumers" and that " they should be offered free of charge or for a reasonable fee"; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60096/22]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The EU Payment Accounts Directive was transposed in Ireland by way of the European Union (Payment Accounts) Regulations 2016 (SI 482 of 2016) (PAR). The objective of the Payment Accounts Directive is to improve and develop the internal market for retail banking, through the removal of barriers to a fully integrated market by ensuring transparency and comparability of fees related to a payment accounts, facilitating payment account switching and ensuring access to payment accounts with basic features.

Under the Payment Accounts Regulations any consumer who is legally resident in the European Union and who does not already have a payment account with a credit institution in the State has the right to open and use a payment account with basic features. Regulation 15 of the Payment Accounts Regulations explicitly states that a consumer who is legally resident in the European Union (within the meaning of Article 2(2) of the EU Payment Accounts Directive) has this right regardless of his or her place of residence and regardless of whether he or she has a fixed address, is an asylum seeker, or is a consumer who has not been granted a residence permit but whose expulsion is not possible for legal or practical reasons.

A payment account with basic features is like a regular payment account in several respects, but does not offer credit facilities i.e. overdrafts. All of the credit institutions operating in Ireland are required to provide payment accounts with basic features. These accounts are free of charge for the first year for regular payment transactions in euro within the European Union. The credit institution may charge a reasonable fee for non-euro transactions and transactions to non-EU countries.

Where the consumer lodges less than the equivalent of national minimum wage to the account in a year the account stays free of charge on a year-by-year basis for five years. After that, the credit institution can charge reasonable fees. The consumer must be given two months’ notice before any such reasonable fee may be imposed.

It should be noted that in addition to the PAR, Provision 2.11 of the Central Bank of Ireland’s Consumer Protection Code 2012 provides that a regulated entity must ensure that in all its dealings with customers and within the context of its authorisation it “without prejudice to the pursuit of its legitimate commercial aims, does not, through its policies, procedures, or working practices, prevent access to basic financial services”.