*The matter was debated at the January meeting of Clare County Council.
CASH PAYMENTS need to be accepted as a method of payment by the National Drivers Licence Service, Clare councillors have argued.
Having received an abundance of complaints from constituents, Cllr Mary Howard (FG), Cllr Pat O’Gorman (FF) and Cllr Alan O’Callaghan (FF) tabled a motion before the January meeting of Clare County Council to file an appeal to the Minister of Transport and CEO of the Road Safety Authority to reconsider its selection to permit only electronic payments for driver’s licences.
The NDLS ceased handling cash during the pandemic, Cllr Howard flagged. “They changed policy during COVID-19 understandably, but there no longer any need for the cash payments to be removed”.
She continued, “This topic has been in the media over last couple of months, covid’s been used as excuse for a lot of things, and I think it’s very unfair on people who have not yet started using electronic payments. The NDLS should make cash payment decisions. I don’t think it would involve a whole lot to change that”.
Strong criticism was voiced by Cllr O’Gorman, “it’s a disgrace that NDLS will only accept card payments. I think that as a Council that we get on the back of the rest of our colleagues, why can’t people use cash, some people have a few pound in their pocket, and they want to use it, they should be able to use it”.
Six councillors backed the joint motion including Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) who drew comparisons with when AIB attempted to change their procedures, “This is similar to when AIB branches were supposed to be closing, that backfired. This is no different, no reason why government cannot insist that cash be an option”.
“Cash is king,” stressed Cllr Ian Lynch (IND). “Any business changing to cashless is questioning, cash needs to be brought as it is a big contender”.
Concluding the discussion, Cllr Howard said, “we probably need to have a broader discussion on this, and we try get this resolved, I just believe to stop using cash, it’s detrimental”.
