“It was a shock,” says Bernadette McNally of AIB’s now abandoned plans to remove cash services from her local branch in Castletownbere in west Cork. “A lot of people here were really shocked. It would have left us with no bank at all.”
AIB in Castletownbere is the only remaining bank on the 600sq km Beara Peninsula, which is home to about 5,000 people. It was one of 70 outlets that were set to become cashless until the bank was forced into a U-turn.
“We need a bank here,” Ms McNally said. “I still use a lot of cash myself. My mother and other older people I know, they use cash all the time; it would have been a major issue for a lot of people.”
Under AIB’s plan, the next nearest “cash” branch would have been Bantry, an hour’s drive away. “The bank is open for now, and if they say they are sorry that’s what they say, but I don’t think many people here would be too surprised now if they try and close the branch again,” Ms McNally added.
Adrienne McCarthy, who runs McCarthy’s Bar in Castletownbere, was glad AIB reversed the plan.
People are using debit cards more frequently, she said, but they “should have the choice and a lot of people do choose cash and that should be available to them ... I think they will come back to this [plan] again in the future, it’s definitely not the end.”
John Walsh on nearby Bere Island would have had even a longer journey than others to find cash services if the plan had gone ahead.
“From the island, you are looking at an hour and a half each way, with getting the ferry and then driving to Bantry and then back again, three hours round trip.”
Older people would have been particularly affected, he said. “We don’t have good internet or even mobile signal out here so a lot of the time you can’t even use card readers or bank cards so people have to use cash.”
The local ATM is vital, he said, adding, “They were just trying to see if they could get away with it. They might be apologetic but they would close the branch if they could.”
In Dunmanway, another of the towns that would have been affected, Andrew Healy, owner of the SuperValu store, welcomed AIB’s climbdown.
“We lost the Bank of Ireland here recently and AIB is now the only bank and we need to keep it,” he said. “A lot of people still rely on being able to access a bank. Clearly they were making a commercial decision but I think the position in rural Ireland is secure now and will be for quite some time. I think they realise the strength of feeling out there now.”