Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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You will be aware that the Retail Banking Review, published in November of 2022, made two clear recommendations for my Department regarding payments: (1) to develop Access to Cash legislation and prepare a related Heads of a Bill in 2023; and (2) to lead on the development of a National Payments Strategy (NPS) in 2024.

I published the terms of reference for the NPS in June 2023, and work on the NPS has commenced, taking account of the changing payment landscape and ongoing legislative developments at EU level, including proposals on instant payments, payment services, legal tender and the digital euro.

My Department is seeking views from across Irish society though a public consultation. A Consultation Paper on the National Payment Strategy has been prepared to guide the discussion and is available on the Department’s website, consult.finance.gov.ie/en. This consultation is now open for submissions until 14 February 2024. The responses to the public consultation will form an important part of the National Payment Strategy to be published in 2024.

The Consultation Paper has three main areas of focus:

• Payments roadmap

• Acceptance of cash

• Access to cash [the development of the access to cash legislation is a separate work stream]

Focussing on the Deputy’s question posed in relation acceptance of cash, there is a need to ensure that cash can be accepted as a means of payment where appropriate. The NPS work will, therefore, look at the acceptance of cash and consider if legislation should be introduced to require certain sectors or sub-sectors to accept or facilitate the acceptance of cash. By extension, it will have to be considered whether it should be policy of the Government to require the public service to accept or facilitate the acceptance of cash.

In September of 2023 I recommended a pause in any changes to the acceptance of cash by public bodies until the NPS is finalised in 2024. That is to say, public bodies should continue to accept cash where they currently do so and not remove this option as they may be subsequently required to revert back to accepting, or facilitating the acceptance of cash.

Additionally, on 28 June 2023, the European Commission published a proposal for a Regulation on Legal Tender, which looks at both access to and acceptance of cash.

As regards the acceptance of cash, the European Commission's draft Regulation proposes that cash acceptance should be mandatory across the Euro Area. However, it also provides flexibility around mandatory acceptance in circumstances where there is a prior agreement in place between both parties regarding payment method, or if the refusal is made in good faith. The exceptions to mandatory acceptance are largely in common practice in Ireland currently.

The draft Regulation proposes that the competent authority in each Member State would be required to monitor the acceptance of payments in cash on an annual basis against a set of common indicators to be formulated by the European Commission and to take remedial measures if this monitoring shows that the mandatory acceptance of cash is being undermined. The draft Regulation specifically draws attention to the need to monitor the level of 'ex ante unilateral exclusions of payments in cash'. It defines such exclusions as including a 'no cash' sign.

The recitals to the proposed Regulation state that a Member State should, if it concludes the level of unilateral exclusions of cash undermine the mandatory acceptance of euro banknotes and coin, take effective and proportionate measures including requiring specific sectors, such as healthcare, supermarkets, post offices and pharmacies, to accept cash.

At domestic level, the work is being undertaken through the NPS, whilst the European Commission work is complementary.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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135. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will be extending the powers of the Central Bank in relation to the regulation of ATMs especially in relation to matters such as reporting, service standards, and denomination stocking; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4267/24]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy may be aware, on the 23rd of January, I published the General Scheme of the Access to Cash Bill 2024. The Access to Cash Bill stems from a recommendation made by the Department of Finance's Retail Banking Review, published in November 2022.

The aim of the Bill is to ensure continued reasonable access to cash in the State based, initially, on December 2022 levels, adjusted for the subsequent exits of Ulster Bank and KBC. The legislation will, for the first time, regulate ATMs with the objective of improving operational standards and ensuring good customer service.

It will also put in place a framework to allow for reasonable access to cash across the State that can evolve with the economy and society’s need for cash.

The operation of ATMs is not currently regulated by the Central Bank, although ATM deployers are required to comply with various security requirements set by the Private Security Authority. As a result, the Central Bank does not have any codes or regulations governing service standards, including hours of operation, denomination stocking, outages and maximum repair times.

Reporting is voluntary and there are no requirements to give notice of decisions to close or install ATMs or indeed of a decision to exit the business or enter it. The Access to Cash Bill will address these matters by requiring ATMs deployers to be registered with the Central Bank and by providing the Central Bank with the regulation making powers in relation to all the matters raised by the Deputy.

The Central Bank will be responsible for the monitoring and enforcement of this legislation.