Central Bank bosses have told an Oireachtas Committee that it is “clear there is a societal demand and need for cash,” while welcoming government leaders to ensure access to cash.
Gabriel Makhlouf, Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, was addressing the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, on Wednesday, along with Deputy Governors Vasileios Madouros and Derville Rowland.
Mr Makhlouf told the Committee that the Central Bank, which has responsibility for both central banking and financial regulation in Ireland, would work with the Department of Finance on implementing recommendations from the Retail Banking Review, including developing a framework to protect access to cash services and the resilience of the cash system.
“We welcome the draft legislation on maintaining access to cash which we believe is an important public policy intervention. It is clear that there is a societal demand and need for cash, and the Central Bank – along with the rest of the Eurosystem – remains committed to the provision of cash.”
His remarks came following the publication of the Retail Banking Review, which called on Finance Department officials to require ATM operators to be authorised and supervised by the Central Bank and to provide the Central Bank with responsibility and powers to protect the resilience of the cash system. This would include the authorisation and supervision of cash-in-transit firms.
At the end of January, Finance Minister Michael McGrath published the General Scheme of the Access to Cash Bill following approval by Government at a cabinet meeting.
The Access to Cash Bill was sparked by a recommendation made by the Retail Banking Review, published in November 2022.
The Review highlighted the “continuing importance of cash” in ensuring that people do not experience financial exclusion, that consumers can budget efficiently, and that a safety net would be in place in the event of electronic banking or the payments infrastructure being impacted by outages or cyber-attacks.
Minister McGrath said last month that although the use of cash has declined in recent years, it was important “to protect its role in society and economy in the future.”
“It is also very important that future changes are managed in a controlled, fair and transparent manner. In the absence of legislative intervention, it is likely that over time we would see more and more ATMs removed from communities across the country and I do not want to see this happen,” he said.
A number of incidents have ignited cause for concern with regards to the issue of access to cash, including a cashless ticketing policy enacted by the GAA and the widely reported case of an elderly man who was turned away from a Dublin cinema last week for wanting to pay with cash.
Noel McNally was left “disappointed” after he was not allowed to pay with cash to visit the film American Fiction at Dublin’s Savoy cinema. Mr McNally had heard a promising review of the film while listening to the Brendan O’Connor radio show, and went to see the 8pm screening.
Mr McNally told his story on RTÉ Radio 1’s Liveline programme, detailing to host Joe Duffy that he was “shown the door.”
“I’m a senior citizen and I was just trying to get out of the house to have a bit of social interaction on my weekend,” the Dublin man said:
“When the girl saw me with cash in my hand and said she couldn’t take it.”
“I was disappointed. I am a movie buff and I was looking forward to getting out of the house, it’s important for me,” he added.
Age Action Ireland said that the incident this month exemplified the “daily social exclusion” experienced by older people who wish to use cash.
Meanwhile, speaking about inflation during Wednesday’s Oireachtas committee meeting, Mr Makhlouf said this was expected to decrease.
“Although inflation has fallen in many member states, we have not yet seen the full extent of the lagged effect of monetary policy actions on borrower finances or economic demand,” he said.
“At the end of December, which sets out our latest assessment of the economy. Our forecasts suggest Ireland’s domestic economy will grow by 2.5 per cent this year, and by 1.9 and 2 per cent in 2025 and 2026 respectively. Inflation has declined significantly over the course of 2023 and the outlook for inflation is now lower than projections given in our previous forecasts,” the Central Bank boss said.