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The Daily PollFINANCE MINISTER JACK Chambers will outline to Cabinet today that all government departments and bodies under their aegis will have to accept cash or facilitate cash payments.
The move comes under the new National Payment strategy, which also sets out that any future contracts agreed between government departments and their agencies with third parties which seek payment from the public must include cash acceptance or facilitation.
The strategy is separate from Access to Cash legislation, which focuses on a minimum number of ATMs being in place in towns and villages across the country.
So today we want to know: How often do you use cash?
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It is important to keep using Cash despite the convenience of Cards. If we end up as a cashless society then the Government would be able to freeze of sieze the money of anyone they didn’t like. Remember what happened to the Canadian Truckers.
@Des Hanrahan: Keep the tinfoil hat on. Once upon a time we used to use spices and livestock for trade.
@Des Hanrahan: so you don’t have a bank account and only keep cash? Your employer pays you cash in hand? If not then your “statement” is redundant.
@c6g12c6: That literally happened though. Your own ignorance is not cause for calling something a conspiracy theory.
@FlipBip: Context. The magic substance that rinses thoroughly faded misconceptions to reveal the dazzling original objective information. Don’t accept cheap imitation products. Only Context is recommended by professionals. Seriously though, a lot of news stories get reported and shared missing important details. Always thoroughly check any controversy for sloppiness, or deliberate distortion of what happened and why.
@c6g12c6: animals are tangible, cash is tangible, numbers on a computer not so much
@Numinous20111: Example of missing Context (but it applies all along the political spectrum). Trump’s claim that Mexico would pay for his border wall. I spent a long time trying to find reporting of any actual reason Trump gave for this. Finally found a quote of his claiming US / Mexico trade and balance of payments would be the reason. I assumed Trump kept repeating this as the explanation. Over time I discovered he gave about a dozen entirely different justifications. All that Context makes clear it was 100% obvious garbage to anyone who could be bothered to check. [I repeat all sides in politics need to be fact-checked, but Trump is the most fun.]
@Paul C: not what he said at all.
@Paul C: Cash isn’t traceable.
@c6g12c6: You’d literally have nothing to say if tinfoil hat wasn’t in your vocabulary.
@Numinous20111: Stop waffling and provide the context then.
@FlipBip: Yes and Canadian truckers deserved their account to be frozen and sized for good people.
@c6g12c6: he’s right, besides do you want big brother to know every detail of your life, where you were, where you shop, holiday, drink, and what you buy! Screw that, they know too much as it is
@Des Hanrahan: If I read the comments, Truckers had their banks account frozen? Then they still would have been scuppered without access to their cash.
@Des Hanrahan: Canada isnt in the EU, and so wasnt subject to Europes strict data protection directives
@Marie Agnew: if “big brother” wanted to track us they could do it via our phone. I don’t think Simon Harris cares whether we do our big shop in Tesco or have an unhealthy addiction to Frappuchinos. This isn’t communist China.
@Des Hanrahan: like it or not we will become cashless in a few years time
@Des Hanrahan: stupid statement.. where do you get the cash from but the hole inda wall.
@Marie Agnew: they know they already, if you are on holiday or not
@Numinous20111: five procent in eu media is true only so made up…
@Fionn Bohane: there’s number on bank notes and coins, what are you on about
@Des Hanrahan: you are right and fair play to you. I just end up losing cash so I use card. Keep up the good work.
@c6g12c6: try reading
@Numinous20111: The Brexit quotes were fun too. “Led By Donkeys” kept us fed with them!
@Eric Gaffney: that’s a Plus, not a Minus
Any place that is card only, I walk straight back out. There is only one winner here,the Banks.
@Gerard Carey: I am probably the richest here
@6gRrQtLn: reported homophobic insult and also spelling mistakes. Thicko.
@6gRrQtLn: jealousy will get you nowhere. I am the richest here and get the most amount of liked comments. Doing pretty well yeah.
@Buster Lawless: cash out so.
@Phillip Smyth: winning
@Gerard Carey: any place that I cash only I walk out as won’t support anywhere that is likely to be avoiding tax, plus I haven’t carried cash in years
@Buster Lawless: you’re not. I can promise you that.
@Buster Lawless: little middle class believe they live in monako
@Fergus O’Donnell: voted the best commentor on the journal poll April 2023 75 percent of the votem
@Pat Hazzard: good. nice to be able to avoid tax. I used to pay by card in the barbers but then they asked could I pay cash as they are already paying enough tax. no problem.
@Buster Lawless: reported abuse lmao lmaooooo. Yesterday in an innocuous enough difference of opinion on the Irish tories, I was called a ‘nonce’ by an account that I’m sure will continue to comment soon enough, whereas I know someone quickly banned by TJ for having a vaguely conservative opinion on SOME immigrants behaviour.
@Buster Lawless: not one single brain cell in that head of yours is there?? Reported myself for calling you something alot less worse than calling someone a nonce and you cried like the child you are, you’ve contradicted yourself on 2 others posts within the last hour, compulsive liar
@Buster Lawless: fool
@6gRrQtLn: reported again. You will be banned again Armstrong.
@Buster Lawless: Winning in what competition? And against whom?
@Buster Lawless: keep reporting me, you’re making yourself look stupider everytime you post something, all right for you to call someone a nonce though isn’t it, that one brain cell of yours is really at its limit now
@Buster Lawless: Kamala 2024.
only deal in cash when doing my day to day business. only when I am purchasing something online eg flights, ill use my card.
@Niall English: mandatory laws on cash will mean nothing with the imminent launch of CBDCs.
@Niall English: I am the best here.
@Buster Lawless: At what?
Cards are fine for payments most of the time . Except whenever there’s a power cut due to a storm or whatever . That’s when you’ll discover how frustrating it can be if you try to pay for groceries etc with a card . With cash you always know exactly where you are .
@Jim Ryan: last time I experienced a power cut, the shops closed as they could not use their cash registers.
@Jim Ryan: do tills and stock systems run on water?
@Eoin Jackson: no, but there is a thing called the brain and it is pretty good at doing maths and working out what is owed and the change to be returned in such circumstances…it’s kinda how things worked only 30 years when most people had one bar for the occasional exception. These days, it seems some people can not wipe their rear end without having a computer to tell them how!
@Pat Barry: I’m very aware you can manually add the cost of items and pay for them. Most shops (99% anyway) won’t do this though will they? Because the barcodes they scan are linked to stock tracking system. The system will tell you when you are low on certain items and will flag them for reorder. Doing as you suggest, would involve a stock recount once electricity comes back on and a complete lack of traceability. It’s why majority of shops, apart from maybe the local corner shop, will shut down in times of no power. And I would imagine keeping 20quid in your house would cover such freak occurrences.
@Jim Ryan: And cash never beeped at me and told me it didn’t work!
@Eoin Jackson: Concerning the point of keeping the €20 in the house for such freak occurrences, I do agree with you. But I was actually replying to your smart ass attitude of the tills running on water. So you agree it’s not that hard to add up stuff on a piece of paper or battery-powered calculator to do such transactions? How do you think shops did it 30, 40 years ago? All that needs to be done for your stock take is keep account of what was sold during the power outage in a notebook, and most shops keep a folder with the prices near the tills anyway and input to the system afterwards. It is not that hard. No power is no excuse to shut up shop. The only excuse I can see a reason to shut up shop under said circumstances is laziness.
@Pat Barry: except every single shop shuts up during a power outage, except for maybe your local corner shop. Next time the power is out pop down Tesco, Aldi or lidl and see if they are open. And these shops don’t close out of “laziness”. Add in to the mix you better bring the exact amount of cash for what you need as availability of change is highly unlikely (a lot of tills won’t offer employees manual opening with no power and majority of these businesses use electronic safes) as well as the fact they are not going to write down the 100s if not 1000s of items sold during a power outage to reconfigure stock levels. As I said, €20 for your local corner shop maybe, but your point other than that is completely redundant. As was pointed out by the first reply to you.
@Eoin Jackson: Sorry, but there is always manual access to the tills. You need to learn domething about them. As I said, it is only laziness that causes shops to close as far as I am concerned, and quite frankly, it seems you fit into the type of person I described in me first reply to you. Our reliance on digital tech has actually made people vunerable to scams and others lazy. I see apprentices coming into my trade, and it seems they can not add 2 and 2 without the help of a calculator. When I debate with someone like you, sorry, but I am really shocked at how the degradation of basic skills, such as basic math, is accepted.
@Pat Barry: you can make all the presumptions and assumptions about me you like Pat, but you need to come into the real world. There is NOT, like categorically NOT, always manual access to tills (check out your local circle K station if you are in any doubt). Many shops are going to the point where they don’t even want shop assistants returning change anymore for avoidance of theft and error. Also prevents staff accessing cash in event of a robbery making a shop unsuitable to attempt a robbery in. Manual access to tills has been phased out now, for quite some time. I am sure some do still have manual access of course. But nowhere near all. I would take your own advice on the matter and maybe learn something about it yourself like a good man rather than talking scour.
@Pat Barry: and Pat this may shock you, but I use basic math in my job every single day. I work with numbers every, single, day. I literally work in finance. But sure you crack on with your assumptions and presumptions. It says an awful lot more about you than you think.
@Eoin Jackson: No, they don’t. You’re literally making that up.
@John Moylan: except I am not John. Pop down to your circle K. Ask them to break a €20 note for you in to 5s. Staff will tell you they can’t access the till. That’s with electricity. Have you not been in a shop where you drop the coins into a machine and notes in to the slot and it shoots your coins and notes in change back out to you? Staff cannot access the cash. The old days of lifting up a base of a till and there being a little switch underneath that will open the cash register are gone. Well for the most part, as I said there likely are still some shops using those tills. But they very much are being phased out.
Where is the option for “often”? I use it more often than “occasionally,” but I do not use it “all the time,” as that would not be viable either, but with all the digital scams going on, such as the parking meter one reported yesterday, any situation that currently refuses cash will need to change back.
Absolutely unwilling to tolerate the move towards cashless
World without cash is scary thought. Everything traced and tracked . In future need go hospital but are denied treatment as what you spent money on seen as wrong so cant get that heart or liver transplant or care needed. Cash is king . Stop using cards and phone go back to cash. Not traceable is what governments and banks what see what buying everything. Thats scary as hell
We need both.
I rarely use cash, but that doesn’t mean that it has to disappear, we need it, it must remain, we can’t have a 100% online system where our money is just a number in a computer.
It’s like having health insurance, just because you rarely use it, doesn’t mean that it should be scrapped.
Cash must remain… a cashless society is not good for people’s civil liberties the banks want us to go cashless so they can exploit and control our spending increase their extortionate profits and they don’t have our best interests in mind the real criminals in a cashless society are the banks
@Vincent Hickey:
It will remain though.
Any cash only business is 100% hiding money. But bizarrely, many people don’t disapprove of tax evasion despite it, literally, increasing everyone else’s tax bill.
@Soundy Sound: in fact I only use cash when forced to pay those that don’t give you invoices, and they don’t for a reason.
@Soundy Sound: and you have proof of this, yes ?
Long term it will, and should, be phased out but doing it now would definitely be a hardship for older people.
That said someone under say 50 that’s complaining about not having cash available I would wonder what you are trying to hide.
As an aside, when was the last time someone was paid with a cheque?
I got one the other day and my 18 year old son asked me what it was!!
@P. J.: nothing to hide,
Is that similar to you hiding your name online.
@P. J.: what about privacy lad what someone spends thier money on is no one’s business but thier own, I find your suggestions that people who want to use cash all the time are up to something boogie, f…king insulting
@P. J.: It is absolutely vital to retain cash payments for eternity.For a multitude of reasons.Mainly for vulnerable people in society.Not just the homeless but for people in controlling/abusive relationships or families living with addicts.Also,if all money is digital it is very easily controlled.Think of a dystopian future where it’s decided you’ve reached your daily governmental approved calorie or alcohol unit intake just as two examples and you’re cut off.If cash disappears then something else of value will take its place and will be bartered.”Cash” in some form will always exist.
@P. J.: you a really don’t get it do you?
Nor does your son obviously.
@P. J.: cheques are something I have not seen in a long time, but I do use bank drafts for really large sums, but they are probably as rare. The teller at the bank had to ask one of the older staff how to do it.
@P. J.:
I still use cheques to pay for stuff…
@P. J.: I have a background in Finance, I still use cash. Nothing to hide, and definitely not scared of government control, it’s for my own convenience. I find it better for small payments as I don’t have to track small spending, I see it in the size of my purse. Also when going to cake sales, car boot sales, etc. Not to mention the loose change I keep in my pockets to give to homeless people, they will be seriously screwed when we all use electronic payments only. As for cheques, never used them, but in some countries they are still widely used
@Anne WG: There is also the question of finding yourself without a card. My phone is not NFC enabled so cannot use it for payments, nor would I want to as I don’t find the option very secure. I had my card cloned once and found myself without one for 2 weeks, it was handy to be able to use cash instead
@P. J.: dumbest comment so far today.
@P. J.: It’s none of your business how people spend their cash
@Fergus O’Donnell: well that confirms it from his replies to me about politics this week. A VERY misled chap, that PJ
@Paul Stanley: thank u for bringing up abuse. I know a lad I was friends with once a rugby player who despite this status was insecure and as it turns out, vicious. he got his wife to cut people out of her life and then controlled and stole her finances. Its essential that cash remain
@P. J.:
Wow, I touched a nerve with the fossils on here!
@Richie Whelan:
Haha the reason for that is every time I comment on this it asks me for my name so I shortened it for convenience.
@S Suilleabhain: absolutely. They dwell amongst us.
My personal details were harvested from a comprised company on the dark Web.
Got a generic email looking to extort 600usd to crypto from me or they’d wipe all my photos of my kids and family .
They ended up getting access to my revolut and I ended up having to cancel every card I had.
They only got a few euros but that’s all my revolut had on it so I reckon that’s why I got the email looking for more .
If it wasn’t for cash I’d have been lost that week.
And how much are the banks gaining extra from these transactions. You don’t hear that
Never using cash .. I would find it difficult to budget, tapping away all the time.
Using cash teaches spending discipline and makes saving easier.
I’d use cash specifically to tip a server or tour guide. Otherwise card.
“Cash is King” anything else is Bank/Government control – buy €50 worth of groceries in cash it’s just that €50 cash – use a card of any form and pay what ever bank charges or Levey on top of the €50
@silvery moon: Um… who do you think makes the cash and has the power to determine its value?
@Ajax Penumbra: The Central Bank of Ireland is who decides the worth of the cash in your hand in relation to a standard, not the bank you deal with. Gold is the standard as far as I know. The shops decide how much that same cash is worth in relation to their wares. But I think you are missing his point. If I take €50 euro in cash from, I can spend it in any number of shops I want. But the bank will charge me €0.35 for the initial withdrawal, as they no longer maintain an ATM in the areas themselves. Now, assume I spent €5.00 in 10 shops, my total cost is €50.35. Now, if I had gone cashless to those ten shops and spent my €50.00 by debit card, I would be charged €0.20 per transaction, resulting in a total vost of €52.00. A difference at cost to me of €1.65. Over time, that adds up
@Pat Barry: you seriously need to change bank if you are paying those charges. My monthly banking fee is €6. I’m not charged for atm withdrawals. I get “cash back” for tapping my card which I always do. I use the ” ” in cash back because it’s not really cash back. My banking fees reduce from €6 to €1. Your bank is absolutely fleecing you Pat.
A cashless society would be ultra dependent on the safe functioning of the internet and ATM system.
I have not used cash for about 8 years
@liam mc meel: you will regret that one day when your purchasing is entirely public and fraud comes knocking on your door
@liam mc meel: were you in jail ?
always use it after all, cash is king!!
@Joanne Stokes: Ah, but what King ruled forever?
Cash only businesses (eg my local barber shop) should all get a regular visit from the tax inspector!
Always, and if a shop doesn’t accept, that’s their tough luck
I had to get cash out last week after my bank told me I has got to the limit on my card, I was able to take cash out and pay for my shopping, yes cards are good but from now on I’m keeping cash on me
@Paul Scully: lucky you had cash available. Most people in Ireland are living hand to mouth on credit.
@Buster Lawless: No they aren’t, you’re living in a different Ireland.
Cash beep cards do use cards but 99 percent cash guy
I use it less post pandemic but still use it most days
I have to say I’m surprised at this poll result. Most people I know only occasionally use cash now
@socheallaigh: the poll is wrong
@Alan Moloney: How do you make that out in fairness?
@Pat Barry: because people not telling the truth
@Alan Moloney: And tell us, how did you come to that conclusion? Do you presume to know what way everybody in the country does?
Cash makes up only 3% of the worlds money… go figure.
@Julio’s Evil Twin: Cash is actually 0% of the world’s money /wealth, but the rest of it is actually made up of physical objects, such as your property once it is paid off, Gold and other precious metals. But, both cash itself and the balance on the computer screen are only representations of that wealth. The problem is that as we go more and more digital, the thieves do not even need to be in the same country as you to pick your pocket.
@Pat Barry: money, I said money..
Not wealth, nor property.. but money, as in cash.. but thank you for your contribution Pat.
@Julio’s Evil Twin: But it is money I speak of…money snd wealth are the same thing. They are actually property, gold, silver, oil, and so on. That bit of paper in your hand and your balance on screen are only a physical and digital representation of that money that you own. Tell us, how fo you distinguish between “money” and “wealth”?
@Pat Barry: bit of paper is only worth something because they government says so. could easily just say that paper you have in your hand is now worthless.
@Pat Barry: i only own a little paddy field. I own properTEA
@Niall English: and you are actually right, it’s only worth what the banks say it is in relation to gold and other standards, but that bit of paper itself is worth nothing itself, except what it represents.
@Pat Barry: no, ‘money’ and ‘wealth’ are not the same thing. A pensioner living on the State pension whilst living in an old large house (say, in Dublin), has some/little money, and a lot of wealth. You can’t eat, heat or live on, ‘wealth’. Or have you never heard of “asset rich, cash poor” ?
Haven’t used cash in years. Freeze/ Unfreeze option for cards very handy for piece of mind.
@Pat Barry: The potential problem is that if there is no cash. Someone else could freeze/ unfreeze your card, for their piece of mind.
@Tomas Barrett:
Piece ?
@Tomas Barrett: Only if they knew all your sign in details.
Social media doesn’t know what your doing or where you are when using cash
Any semi pro musician in this country will always insist on cash. Otherwise, it’s a very, very quiet set…
Cash is pointless most of the time. A society without cash would see a big drop of illegal sales and less issues with people who do not pay their taxes. But it also means a potential bigger control over someone’s finances which isn’t really an issue because no one stash cash outside a bank account except for illegal reasons. The removal of cash is mostly a poor people problem.
@Alex: Why do you think keeping a stash of cash is purely for illegal purposes. I actually keep 2 envelopes that I put €10 into each week. One I put towards my home heating oil at the start of each winter, and the other put towards a break away for myself and the wife each summer. If it’s not in the bank, I can’t spend it by accident, tapping the card. Which leads me to my next point. I also take out the weeks spending money in cash at the start of the week. It is easier to keep track of it if you can physically account for it, as opposed to getting a nasty surprise when a payment gets rejected because you lost track of your spending due to digital transactions. So nothing illegal, it’s just what suits me and most likely many others.
@Pat Barry: cashless and the way to go
@Alan Moloney: I’m not saying cashless is all bad, just that making silly statements like anyone who uses cash only uses it for illegal purposes is ridiculous. There are many valid, legal reasons to do so.
@Pat Barry: in a few years time revolut will have taken over everything
@Alan Moloney: Nah, I wouldn’t think so. It will be a long time before anything digital is totally foolproof. For example, one of the other commentators explained how their revolut card was cleaned out, and even though it prevented the main cards from getting wiped, he had to change everything. And they probably were on the other side of the world as they did that. At least cash makes it a bit harder for them.
Maybe if banks were made to replace what was stolen electronically from the customers’ accounts since it was their security that failed to stop the theives, I might trust figital tranactions more. After all, when a bank was robbed in the old days, it was the bank footed the bill, not the customer. But these days, they use the excuse you clicked a dodgy link.
@Alan Moloney: Revolut is scam opportunity.com Wouldn’t touch it.
@Alex: Utter nonsense.
@Alex: What’s it like being you, Alex?
@Alan Moloney: nope. Given the level of hacking and scam transactions through it, one day we’ll wake up to the headline like the Wirecard one….
I use the phone or card a lot but always have cash. Systems go down and you are left broke.
If a friend needs a few bob, I can give it to them. Or if I want to tip somebody.
Always have a back up is my rule.
Haven’t used cash in years but I’m ok with the ECB’s Eurosystem cash strategy just the same.
Its not up to us, it’s the businesses not wanting cash, if they all go cashless then so will you have no choice.
@Shane O Mac: plenty of businesses in my town only accept cash. I’ve no problem with it. they’ll even say that it’s to hide it from the tax man. no problem with that either. do the same myself.
@Niall English: more of dis.
@Shane O Mac: They can’t all go cashless, the government made it so. Jaysus lads.
Pretty much just the barber.
I’ve had my wallet stolen a few times by pick pockets, the last with €350 in it… I don’t carry cash anymore.
Globally, cash accounts for 16 percent of payments, while debit cards are used for 23 percent, credit cards for 26 percent and digital wallets for 32 percent. African countries are the top four reliant on cash. Roll on cashless like they’ve done in Sweden last year.
@Pat Barry: No thanks. As I explained to Ajax further up, every time you use a debit card, you are charged €0.20 in bank charges. It’s cheaper in the long run to take out a lump sum and spend it as you need and take the one charge from the bank for the withdrawal of the lump sum. Also, using cash, as opposed to digital transactions, in situations such as the type highlighted yesterday by the parking meter scam makes it it harder for such scams to work. After all, using QR codes, they don’t even need to be in the same country as you are scammed. Just spend a night, fly in, change several hundred stickers, and fly out. Finally, many people, myself included, find it easier to keep track of the cash spent as opposed to invisible digital transactions.
@Pat Barry: Restauranteurs protesting in Dublin today about the cost of doing business, some probably don’t even know it’s very expensive for them to handle cash. Invisible digital transactions? Log into your banking app to view them.
@Pat Barry: Well, I dont spend all day looking at transactions on my phone. I take out my lump sum at the start of the week, and when I open my wallet as the week passes, I know exactly what I have left to last the rest of the week. Prior to that, I was losing track, and before I knew it, the weeks budget was gone, and quite frankly, I have better things to be doing than checking a bank app 10+ times a day to see where was it gone, which was what I was doing, trying to keep track. Then, there is the charge associated with every transaction, and while not immediate, are a transaction in itself that nobody thinks about as they use the debit card. Think about it, how many times a week do you use your debit card? are you happy with that charge when you work it out over the year? …….
@Pat Barry: ……As for the restaurateurs protesting today, I do realise they are charged for handling cash, just like they are also charged every time their card machine is used just as their customers are, but that is a different argument. After all, they got a VAT rate cut after the pandemic restrictions were lifted, and instead of passing it on to their customers, they kept the extra for themselves, which annoyed people, and the Government. After all, they got that cut so that they would reduce prices and entice people back out spending money. Instead, they kept their prices the same, paid the taxman less VAT, and kept the extra. Other industries did not get those VAT cuts, and businesses and jobs were lost. The hospitality sector were given a chance, and they squandered it.
@Pat Barry: Much more expensive for businesses to handle cash compared to card, anything up to 15% according to reports, add in muggings, cash in transit/ atm robberies etc., no better off without it.
@Pat Barry: no, it isn’t: https://www.sage.com/en-ie/blog/best-payment-methods-for-small-businesses/#h-1-cash
@John Moylan: I was talking about other associated costs such as having to count it, package it up and transport it to the bank. Other physical items such as event and airplane tickets have gone digital, reckon money’ll go that way soon.
have your say