Cllr Sarah O'Reilly (FF).

‘It’s not good enough’

A local councillor has roundly criticised what she described as the piecemeal decimation of local banking services by financial institutions across the county and has called on the local authority to seek a meeting with management in a bid to force a reversal.


Fianna Fáil's Sarah O'Reilly decried the recent decision by Bank of Ireland to move to a five day ‘morning-only counter service’, with staff available on the floor for the afternoon in Bailieborough. Customers will still be able to lodge and withdraw money from self-service machines but won’t be able to take out more than €1,300 or deal with foreign currency.
This, coupled with branches in Arva, Cootehill and Kingscourt adopting a cashless Advice & Self Service’ model only, Cllr O'Reilly described was a major “downgrading of services”.
Highlighting the difficulties this posed to older generations not accustomed to tech-savvy banking, she said it was “awful” that the second largest town in Cavan did not have full banking services and noted too the sporadic working nature of the ATM in town. “It’s not good enough.”
Fellow party member Shane P O'Reilly supported the motion, saying if including the town of Virginia there was now no full banking entity in the east of the county, “it beggars belief.”
Fine Gael's Carmel Brady added to the debate, citing the closure by Ulster Bank of its Cootehill branch and the change of its service model in Cootehill too - this after management met with town representatives to promote their presence locally after Ulster Bank's decision to vacate. “Do Bank of Ireland want customers in the door or not?” she asked.
Cllr Noel Connell (SF) agreed, as did Cathaoirleach Paddy McDonald who suggested: “The Credit Union is the only way to go.”
Fellow party member, newly co-opted Sinn Féin Cllr Daniel Downey noted that it was not just a “deprecation of services in local communities but also a “centralisation of spend”.
“Local towns will be losing out as a result of this, it’s local businesses where people once came in, did their banking and went to the shops as well.”