Council lobbies for no more cuts to banking services in Tipperary towns

Tipperary County Council has sought assurance from the Minister for Finance that no county Tipperary town will be left without a bank providing all banking services following AIB’s recent unsuccessful attempt to downgrade branches in four towns in the county.

A motion tabled by Independent Cllr Andy Moloney calling on the council to write a letter to the relevant Minister seeking this assurance was passed at Tipperary County Council’s September meeting.

It was proposed by Cllr Michael Murphy and seconded by Cllr Declan Burgess.

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Cllr Burgess said the recent withdrawal of Bank of Ireland from Cashel and Cahir has left a void in those towns and he pointed to the recent attempt by AIB to withdraw banking services from Cashel, Cahir, Carrick-on-Suir and Roscrea. He expressed the hope that banking services won’t be reduced further in the county’s towns.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Moloney from Poulmucka explained that he tabled the motion because he feared the bank’s threat to pull out of the towns in his area - Cahir and Cashel - has not gone away and would return when least expected.

He said “people power” this summer prevented AIB from reducing its banking services in both towns.

He had teamed up with the Cashel Chamber to gather names for a petition to halt the attempt by AIB to downgrade its banking service in Cashel.

“While we are heading towards a cashless society, we are a long way off that due to the lack of investment in infrastructure and black spot areas for the Internet,” he pointed out.

Cllr Moloney added that while transferring banking services to post offices would be a boost for these institutions in towns that lost banking services, they are not yet ready. Retrofitting and investment of many post offices would be needed.