Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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78. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the availability of cash payments to State agencies (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28571/24]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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In June 2023, the terms of reference for a National Payments Strategy (NPS) were published, and work on the NPS has commenced. The work of the NPS will take 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. Access to cash and acceptance of cash is also being examined as part of this work.

The Department sought views from across Irish society though a public consultation. A Consultation Paper on the NPS was prepared to guide the discussion and is available on the Department’s website, . 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]

The consultation process closed on 14th of February and the responses to the public consultation will form an important part of the NPS. A summary of the submissions was published on the Department’s website and can be found

Specifically, in relation to cash acceptance, 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.

At the same time, the above actions will need to be mindful of European Commission initiatives on this topic. In June of 2023, the European Commission published a proposal for a Regulation on Legal Tender to look at access to and acceptance of cash across Member States. The Department of Finance aims to publish the final Strategy in H2 2024 and this will take into consideration consultation responses, stakeholder engagement and EU legislative developments in this area.

In September of 2023, Minister McGrath 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.

You might be interested in the press release which can be found at the following location: