A foreign currency provider, Foreign Currency Services, is again offering services in the Republic through the Ryanair website, although this is not authorised by the Central Bank.
Ryanair, in a statement yesterday, said it was "delighted to be associated with Simplyfx". It claimed that Simplyfx, which is operated by Foreign Currency Services Ltd, offered the lowest foreign exchange service in Ireland and Britain with a maximum margin of 2.475 per cent.
The statement was issued in response to an article in yesterday's Consumer Choice magazine which noted that the Simplyfx service was not authorised in the Republic. The Consumers' Association of Ireland was also concerned that eurozone conversion rates were not calculated at the fixed rate.
Ryanair said Simplyfx complied with the guidelines laid down by the British banking authorities and the National Criminal Intelligence Service. The service on the website was provided from Britain, and the company had applied for an Irish bureau de change licence.
The ryanair.com commercial director, Mr Sean Coyle, said: "If the Consumers' Association wanted to do something useful, it should be campaigning against the high rates being charged by the Bank of Ireland monopoly at Dublin Airport, and highlighting the savings that consumers can make by purchasing their forex requirements from the Simplyfx facility at ryanair.com"
The chief executive of the CAI, Mr Dermott Jewell, said the association "would consider it very useful that consumers were aware that this was an unauthorised service".