Short answer, yes – but only where certain conditions have been met.
Some businesses have begun to move away from accepting physical currency as payment for goods and services.
During the covid pandemic hygiene was cited as a reason for reticence in accepting cash and coins, although if you ask me those digital self order screens are where the real rot is.
Last week AIB received serious criticism for its now reversed decision to ‘go cashless’ in 70 branches nationwide.
The bank had told customers that a review of its “banking services has shown a steep decline of cash usage and cheque transactions.”
In Spite of this many of us still prefer to use cash for a variety of reasons that need not be gone into here.
Gript approached the Central Bank for clarification on the issue of whether or not cash can be refused.
“Euro notes and coins” they said, “have legal tender status in Ireland.”
“However, retail transactions are governed by contract law in Ireland and in the context of this, where a business places no restrictions on the means of payment it is prepared to accept, it must accept legal tender when offered by a customer to settle a debt that has arisen.”
They say that a business can refuse cash as payment but they must specify this in advance.
In such circumstances “the customer cannot subsequently claim a legal right to pay in cash, even if that cash is legal tender.”