Where a business places no restrictions on the means of payment it is prepared to accept, it must accept cash as legal tender when offered by a customer to settle a debt that has arisen. If a business specifies payment must be in a form other than cash, the customer cannot subsequently claim a legal right to pay in cash. This can be achieved by, for example, placing a sign stating, “cash not accepted” or “card payment only” at the store entrance or check out area.
As a matter of common law, contracts are formed by offer and acceptance. In general terms, a contract is formed between a retailer and a customer when a retailer accepts an offer made by a customer. The terms which apply to such a contract are a matter for the parties to determine and will depend on the circumstances of the case. The Consumer Rights Act 2022, which was sponsored by the Minister for Enterprise Trade & Employment, applies to contracts entered into between retailers and consumers on or after 29 November 2022.
One of the recommendations of the Department of Finance's Retail Banking Review, published in 2022, was that the Department of Finance should lead on the preparation of a new National Payments Strategy to be completed in 2024. The National Payments Strategy will set out a roadmap for the future evolution of the entire payments system, taking account of developments in digital payments, the use of cheques and other issues, and guide how future changes should be made to the entire payments system.
A key focus of the new National Payments Strategy is to ensure Ireland has an accessible and innovative payments system, as this is vital for our society and economy. All citizens should be able to participate fully in all aspects of modern life using digital or cash methods of payment. While technology can enable vulnerable groups to partake in society in new ways, it should not exclude them. I want to ensure choice is at the centre of our future payments strategy.
The Strategy is also specifically considering the issue of the acceptance of cash and whether the Minister for Finance should have the regulatory power to require critical sectors or sub-sectors to accept cash. The policy position on the acceptance of cash by public bodies is also being examined.
The Strategy should also be informed by, and aligned with, the retail payment strategies of both the EU Commission and the Eurosystem. For example, on 28 June 2023 the European Commission put forward two proposals within a ‘single currency package’ to ensure that individuals and businesses can continue to access and pay with euro banknotes and coins across the euro area, and to set out a framework for a possible new digital form of the euro that the European Central Bank could choose to issue in the future, as a complement to cash.
The proposal on euro banknotes published by the Commission the draft Regulation on Legal Tender. Its primary focus is access to and acceptance of cash across Member States. The proposal places an obligation on Member States to monitor access to cash and report their assessment to the Commission and the ECB annually. Under the proposal, where the level of acceptance of cash is undermining the legal tender status of euro banknotes and coins, Member States will be required to set out remedial actions they will take. The draft regulation is being considered separately by the Council and the European Parliament. at the moment.
The deputy should also be aware that the Retail Banking Review concluded that cash, despite a decline in its usage, remains an important element of the payments system and the broader economy and it is essential that cash remains readily available to customers through ATMs and other means across the country. It also concluded that there was reasonable access to cash at the time of publication, but noted that neither the Minister for Finance, nor the Central Bank, had any powers to ensure this.
Accordingly, the Review recommended that the Department of Finance should develop Access to Cash legislation and prepare heads of a bill with the initial objective of developing criteria that would secure access to cash at about the levels prevailing in December 2022, but also provide that this criteria be amended appropriately in future as and when cash usage declines further.
Accordingly, on 23 January, I published the General Scheme of the Access to Cash Bill 2024. The aim of the Bill is to ensure continued reasonable access to cash in the State based, initially, on December 2022 levels, adjusted for the subsequent exits of Ulster Bank and KBC. The Bill also aims to ensure that evolution of the access to cash infrastructure does not move ahead of society's needs and expectations and that the future evolution is handled in a fair, transparent, and equitable manner.
The legislation will allow me to prescribe regional requirements for the minimum numbers of ATMs per 100,000 people, the proportion of the population that must be no more than 10 km from an ATM, and the proportion of the population that must be no more than 10 km from a “cash service point”.
The Bill will require entities, whose share of current accounts and household deposits exceed percentages I will prescribe, to be responsible for maintaining access to cash levels. The designated entities, as they will be known, will, initially, be the three main retail banks.
The Bill also provides for the remedying of “local deficiencies.” These are locations within a Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS3) region where particular difficulties arise in accessing cash. The Central Bank will assess such cases and, where warranted, may require designated entities to address the issue. The Central Bank will prepare and publish guidance on local deficiencies prior to implementation of this provision.
Although ATM deployers are required to comply with various security requirements set by the Private Security Authority, the operation of ATMs is not currently regulated by the Central Bank. As a result, there are no codes or regulations governing service standards, including hours of operation, denomination stocking, outages and maximum repair times, and reporting is voluntary. There is also no requirement to give notice of decisions to close or install ATMs or indeed of a decision to exit the business or enter it. The Access to Cash Bill will address these matters.
Department of Finance officials met the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and Taoiseach in February, and the Committees pre-legislative scrutiny report on the Access to Cash Bill was recently published. The recommendations therein will be considered as the drafting of the Bill continues.
Cash has an important role in both society and the economy, and involves both access to, and acceptance of, cash. I will continue to work to protect that role.
