Cash is ‘here to stay’ but new rules on ATMs being planned, says Minister of Finance

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath has promised that “cash is here to stay” but said new rules around access to cash and ATMs are being devised by Government amid a continued increase in the number of people paying for goods and services digitally.

Mr McGrath said new legislation will be tabled next year which will look at how much cash people should have reasonable access to, while ATMs will also be regulated. He has now opened a public consultation seeking views on the future national payments strategy.

“The role of cash has certainly declined but we have significant public policy decisions to make. While recognising that lot of changes have taken place, for so many people the use of cash remains a very important part of their day to day life.

“The national payments strategy, which we will finalise around the middle of next year, will address issues such as: what is an appropriate level of access to cash in the future across our society and our economy, what should be the right of people to have reasonable access in terms of getting cash and lodging cash.

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“Alongside the development of this payment strategy, we are finalising the heads of a Bill in relation to access to cash. That will involve defining what is an appropriate level of access to cash in communities all over the country. That does involve some difficult choices and decisions that have to be made.”

Asked what those difficult choices are, he said: “The kinds of questions that arise are: how far is it reasonable to have to travel to access an ATM service? What is the level of customer service that you can reasonably expect about maintenance of that service for example, and even down to the question of the ability to access a mix of notes for example, you know, €20, €50 and so on. There is a lot of detail that will be worked out. Much of it will be in the Bill itself.”

He said the legislation will also for the first time provide a system of registration, and ultimately of regulation, of ATMs.

“At the moment, it is a service that is not currently regulated. I think that needs to be addressed. So we will be providing very significant enabling powers to the Central Bank of Ireland to ensure that the operators of ATMs – those who provide them and those who run them – are the subject of an appropriate level of regulation”.

Asked what level of cash the public should have access to, he said “it should certainly be no less than what we have now.”

“We have to make decisions about what is an appropriate right in respect of certain goods and services that are important in people’s day to day life that they would have an ability to use cash. There are also emerging proposals from the European Union in this respect but we are very anxious to progress this ourselves in the coming months. I do think that without some intervention, we will run the risk of financial exclusion as more and more goods and services are subject to digital payments only.

“What I would say is cash is here to stay. And it needs to be, because it forms an important part of the day to day life of many people across our country and it’s important that we don’t force change on people. Cash will continue to have a very significant role to play into the future. And I think it is about time now that we legislate for that.”

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