Cormac Devlin
Question:22. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Finance the status of the National Payments Strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14271/24]
View answerWednesday, 10 April 2024
Questions (22)
Written answers
You will be aware that the Retail Banking Review, published in November 2022, made two clear recommendations regarding payments: (1) for my Department to develop Access to Cash legislation and prepare a related Heads of a Bill in 2023; and (2) for my Department to lead on the development of a National Payments Strategy (NPS) in 2024.
I published the terms of reference for the National Payments Strategy (NPS) in June 2023, and work on the NPS has commenced, taking account of the changing payment landscape and ongoing legislative developments at EU level, including proposals on instant payments, payment services, legal tender and the digital euro.
My Department sought views from across Irish society though a public consultation. A consultation paper on the National Payments Strategy was prepared to guide the discussion and is available on the Department’s website. This consultation was open for nine weeks and closed on 14 February 2024. The responses to the public consultation will form an important part of the National Payments Strategy to be published in 2024.
The consultation paper had three main areas of focus:
• Payments roadmap
• Acceptance of cash
• Access to cash [the development of the access to cash legislation is a separate work stream]
The payments roadmap describes the payments landscape in Ireland and covers a number of topical issues, including instant payments, open banking and fraud. The section on access to cash complements the domestic legislation which is currently in train. Specifically, the access to cash section examines current cash usage in Ireland and then looks at potential future changes to the access to cash criteria to be decided in domestic legislation. The section on acceptance of cash considers cash as a form of payment, and a government policy on acceptance or facilitation of cash by public bodies as well as key sectors
In parallel with the consultation paper being open, a team within my Department engaged with a wide variety of stakeholders from across industry and civil society. This included, representative bodies for vulnerable groups, actors in the banking and payments ecosystem as well as regulatory bodies.
A review of all submissions received as part of the consultation process is underway and I plan to publish a high-level summary shortly. Engagement with stakeholders will continue until the Strategy is finalised, by end 2024.