Elderly and young will suffer if banks force a cashless society says councillor

Fears that banks have relentlessly pushed to create a society unburdened by cash, and where digital and card payments reign could soon become a reality.

That's according to Cllr Micheál Naughton. He has warned the elderly, low-income families and young people would be the first casualties if the banks got their way.

He raised the issue at Monday's meeting of Donegal County Council when he tabled a motion asking the council to call on the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, and the Minister for Public Expenditure, Michael McGrath to make sure this country does not become a cashless society.

He said it was "high time" they had a debate on this issue and its role in society going forward.

"If the banks had their way no one would be using cash. We saw a few months ago when the AIB branches tried to go cashless. Only for the public came out and voiced its opinion it would have gone through."

He claimed banks had little regard for senior citizens or people on low incomes.

"Cash is very important to these people and the bank wants everybody to use credit cards or online banking claiming no one is using the banks. Maybe that is true but the banks have played a role over the last 20 years pushing everybody away and not providing the services that they can."

Cllr Naughton, who is general manager at the Clanree Hotel in Letterkenny said he could see that from his own business point of view.

"You only get two half days anymore to deal with cash for businesses in the bank. The banks have an issue with cash and we know the reason. Twenty percent of their overheads come down to their involvement with cash. It costs them to service their ATM machines, hacking the cash around the country and getting staff to manage it.

"I get that but this should not come as an expense to our senior citizens or the general public because at the end of the day we the taxpayer are paying for this. Why should banks make millions at our expense?"

ATM Machines

He claimed that by the end of this year there would only be 25% of the ATM machines left in banks compared to 100% three years ago.

"Bank of Ireland and AIB have got rid of 1,200 ATM machines. Age Action has said over 50% of people aged between 65 and 75 have not used the internet so basically, these people are at a huge disadvantage."

Cllr Naughton said there was another issue surrounding this and that was the availability of proper internet and broadband in rural areas.

"Rural pubs and shops still have problems in relation to internet and broadband coverage. Older people and people on low incomes don't have iPhones or access to the internet either. MABS (Money Advice and Budgeting Service) say cash is vital for families to budget their day-to-day spending. Young people can't learn to budget if they don't have cash in hand or the value of work to get cash in hand. We all remember our first wage and how we decided to use it."

He cited problems experienced in big cities too and pointed to the problems at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin where the system went down and businesses lost over half a million euros.

"Technology is great but it also fails at some point and when it does what is going to happen then? Our visa machines in the Clanree went down during rally weekend and only for cash we would have been in bother.

"If we hand things over to the banks it will have a huge impact on our daily lives.
"Cash is still king. We as a society will have to work out what role it will have in the future so that people can have access to it," he said

Cllr Ciaran Brogan seconded the motion which was passed unanimously.
The meeting was told the council will write to the Minister about this issue.