asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he has further considered the establishment of a Giro here; and if he will state the advantages of such a system over the postal order, money order and banking system on the one hand and the disadvantages of such a system for Ireland compared with other States where such a system is in operation or about to come into operation.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Post Office Giro System.
14.
The question of establishing a Giro system in this country has received intermittent consideration in my Department in recent years but due to other more pressing commitments it has not been possible to carry out the full detailed examination that would be essential before a firm decision could be made on whether a service of this kind should be provided.
Briefly, the Giro system involves the provision by the Post Office of a current account banking service with cheque facilities. Its principal advantage over the postal order and money order system is that it provides a convenient method of enabling large numbers of small settlements to be made by the clearing house method, without the transfer of cash. Commercial banks provide a similar service, but the Giro system has the advantage that post offices are more widely spread throughout the country than branches of commercial banks.
The present Post Office money order and postal order remittance services and the commercial bank system in this country are more highly developed and widely used than in most of the European countries that operate Giro banks. Consequently it is by no means certain that a Giro would provide a worthwhile addition to the existing media for transmitting money here or that the demand for such a service would enable it to be provided on an economic basis. An important requirement of the system is the prompt debiting and crediting of accounts and the speedy issue of statements involving the use of high speed data processing equipment. In this connection my Department is at present actively investigating the feasibility of introducing computer working for some of its operations.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that every country in the European Economic Community operates a Giro system and that, therefore, in preparing for it, this is one of the things we should do in order to integrate our system with theirs, if and when we are able to join the Treaty of Rome?
That is, generally, what I have just been endeavouring to explain.
What the Parliamentary Secretary has said is that it is being put on the long finger.
No; I have said we are looking into it.
Intermittently. That is pretty good for this Government, to be even intermittent.
Continuously.
"Intermittent" was the word the Parliamentary Secretary used.