Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Jobs and Enterprise Dara Calleary has criticised a move by Bank of Ireland to set a €700 minimum cash withdrawal limit in its branches saying it will have serious repercussions for small businesses, and he’s urging management at the bank to reconsider this controversial decision.
Deputy Calleary explained, “The decision to set a €700 limit as the minimum cash withdrawal for customers at the counter in Bank of Ireland branches and impose rigid restrictions on deposits flies in the face of common sense. Small businesses across the country depend on seamless access to over the counter withdrawal and lodgement arrangements at bank branches in carrying out daily business.
“For cash intensive businesses like retail SMEs, pubs and cafés, the new withdrawal arrangements, combined with the ban on cash lodgements of up to €3,000 in over the counter business at branches, will seriously impede the ease of doing business. We need to be making life easier for small businesses, not harder.
“This is another hit on small businesses, and comes less than a week after Ireland plunged down the World Bank’s international rankings for the ease of doing business. Ireland dropped four places to 17th behind Macedonia and Estonia.
“These new rules will also impact on older citizens and could lead to them carrying more cash around, which raises serious security and safety concerns.
“These new measures are anti-business and anti-community. I am calling on Bank of Ireland to seriously re-consider these new arrangements. I raised this issue directly with the Minister for Jobs this morning who completely ignored these concerns. For a Government that claims to want Ireland to be the best small country in the world in which to do business this is simply not good enough.”
