Cllr Jackie Healy Rae has urged people to use more cash in their day-to-day dealings in order to prevent any thoughts that banks might have to reduce services in rural areas

.

Last week the AIB bank reversed plans under public pressure to close up to 70 branches throughout Ireland, mostly in rural areas admitting that they were “recognising the customer and public unease that this [planned closures] has caused.”

In recent times there has been a 36% decline in cash withdrawals from ATMs and a 50% fall in cheque usage over the past five years. AIB revealed that they also saw a fall of almost 50% in branch over-the-counter teller transactions, while mobile and online payments have increased by 85% in that same timeframe.

“Small businesses, local community groups and even GAA clubs all need cash bank transactions to see them through their daily or weekly businesses and people literally have the choice in their own hands to use more cash to prevent banks from making further plays in the future at closing down branches,” Cllr Healy Rae said.

“We all saw how quickly telephone kiosks were removed from rural Ireland when we were not watching and the amount of ATM cash machines are declining each day from small towns and villages and we still have the ability in our hands to influence this.”