The Minister for Finance will have power to ban ATM cash withdrawal charges amid fears third party ATMs may impose charges.
The law changes will be brought in as part of new ‘Access to Cash’ laws signed off by Cabinet today.
Most Irish bank cards are either Visa or Mastercard and those companies prohibit access charges, said John Palmer, a senior civil servant in the Department of Finance with responsibility for EU banking and payments policies in the banking division of the department.
“But that’s their rules and they can change them so that’s why we’re putting in place the power for the minister to have the ability to ban them,” he said.
He said the new law is being brought in in case credit card companies start charging ATM usage fees and independent ATM operators in turn “impose an access fee on Irish accounts”.
Minister Michael McGrath said “no decision” has been made on whether these powers will be used.
“We haven’t made any decision in relation to invoking those powers,” he said.
“I do think it is important that those powers are available and that will be in the form of making regulations in relation to the fees.”
The Consumers’ Association of Ireland lobby group has previously raised fears that ATMs would soon start charging for cash withdrawals.
Bank of Ireland and AIB sold 1,200 ATMs between them to independent operators in 2021.
At the time of the sales, commitments were given that there would be no additional charges imposed by the new independent owners for withdrawing cash for a period of three years – but that moratorium ended at the beginning of this year.
The Central Bank will also have the ability to regularise independent ATMs and set standards on service, hours of operation as well as how many denominations may be stocked in ATMs – for example, stocking €10 and €20 notes and not just €50.
The new ‘Access to Cash’ laws by the Government will ensure the number of ATMs around the country stays at December 2022 levels.
This is part of a plan to keep physical money circulating in the economy. If ATM numbers in areas fall, the onus will be on the banks to open up new ATMs.
Minister McGrath said there will be a “pretty big stick” on banks to follow the new rules.
Banks may see fines if they don’t follow the new rules as per pre-existing laws, which are imposed if banks don’t follow regulations set by the Government.
Cash usage in Ireland has fallen. Before the pandemic, just under €20bn was withdrawn from ATMs in the State. In 2022 €13.5bn was withdrawn, which is a decrease of under one-third.
ATM transactions have declined by nearly 45pc from €156m pre-pandemic to €87m in 2022.
Banks will have to keep a certain amount of ATMs per 100,000 population and ensure people have access to an ATM within a 10km radius.
In the west, 96.8pc of the population is within 10km of an ATM. The figure stands at 97.8pc in the midlands and at 99.1pc in the south-east.
Currently, there are 95 ATMs per 100,000 of the population in the Border region and 75 ATMs per 100,000 people in the midlands.
