The charity Age Action has told politicians that access to cash is about being able to “buy something in a shop or a cafe, to buy a bottle of water on a train or attend a sporting match without being discriminated against”.
But it has warned that older people are now “disproportionately likely to experience digital and social exclusion due to cashless payment models”.
Nat O’Connor, Age Action’s senior public affairs and policy specialist, told the Oireachtas Committee on Finance, that there are a large number of older people who will prefer to use cash for at “least the next 20 years”.
“Over one million people in Ireland are aged 60 and older, and they represent one in four adults.
“Rushing to embrace new payment technologies will deepen ageism and age discrimination. Age Action knows this because we know three in ten older persons do not use the internet at all.
“There are many older persons on low fixed incomes who manage their financial affairs through cash, and have done so for all their lives,” O’Connor said.
He told the committee, who have been reviewing the Access to Cash Bill, that Ireland needs “robust infrastructure and regulations to guarantee easy access to and acceptance of cash for at least 20 years”.
O’Connor also highlighted the problems that arise for people when “cash machines are removed or out of order”.
“Access to cash and acceptance of cash need to be actively monitored and the rules enforced.
“Inadequate public transport must be included in any analysis of local deficiencies. On average, people aged 66 or older live 2.7km away from their nearest public transport stop.
“Not all cash service points are open 24/7. Counter services obviously won’t be, but also many ATMs are inside shops or shopping centres. The law should take account of when cash service points are available as well as how many of them there are,” he added.
According to O’Connor, the Age Action charity deals with cases of financial abuse and “forcing older persons” to use services and rely on skill sets with which they are not comfortable puts them at risk.
“Access to cash supports social inclusion; safety; and autonomy, choice and control in managing one’s own financial affairs,” he stated.
The Mayo Sinn Féin TD, Rose Conway-Walsh, said she understood coming from a “very rural area” with an ageing population in the area that if people did not have transport they could not access ATMs in certain areas.
She asked O’Connor if the charity believed that it was necessary for Ireland to ensure there was a right to use cash.
O’Connor told the committee: “I think legislation is absolutely necessary – the reason is – it’s going to cost money to provide a cash system across the country and as fewer people are using cash it’s still that the unit cost of of delivering cash, cash in transit maintaining and servicing ATM’s and so on and staffing branches of this counter services around the country that is going to cost money.
“It’s going to cost money to provide a public good and to make sure we have a situation where everybody is included and that’s you know priceless.
“But unless it’s required by law every business will will have an incentive to slowly but surely withdraw their participation in the cash system particularly with fewer people using it.”