McGrath was non-committal on whether all businesses would have to continue to accept cash, however, saying that his department had yet to come to a final view on that matter.

McGrath also accepted that there were costs involved for banks in maintaining ATM facilities, particularly if they are not being used as much now as in the past.

This buttresses the argument in favour of cash, however.

First, it is surely a fundamental principle that people should be able to pay cash if they choose; the very definition of legal tender is that it consists of notes and coins which must be accepted in settlement of a debt.

More importantly, accommodating the needs of the banks is an argument which is likely to be met with a stony silence. In recent years their behaviour has ranged from the recklessness which contributed to the financial crisis to misleading and overcharging customers, but in this context their rush to abandon swathes of the country by shutting down branches in small towns is particularly germane.

Discommoding large numbers of people by removing retail banking from their home areas was a considerable, and ongoing, inconvenience.

If inconvenience to the banks is one of the reasons behind the move away from cash, therefore, better reasons will have to be found. Many people are likely to be sceptical of measures which the banks support based on their past record, and the future of cash in Irish society should not depend on our financial institutions wanting to be accommodated.

In this matter, as with many others, policy should be dictated for the public good not by private convenience.

Reluctance to embrace efficiency 

It has been a tough few days for Government and semi-state bodies when it comes to providing example of efficiency and cost-effectiveness. 

This week, the 'Irish Examiner' revealed that the Department of Education spent almost €3m posting out physical wage slips last year, despite admitting in 2021 that postage costs had to be addressed “as a matter of urgency”: The department provides a payroll service to more than 150,000 school staff across the country, and postage costs have almost doubled since 2021.

Not to be outdone, ESB Networks had to apologise this week for an error it made which has resulted in households being overcharged for over a decade.

A hearing of the Oireachtas environment committee heard ESB managing director Nicholas Tarrant say the error resulted in households being overcharged just over €100m
from 2011 onwards, a figure which worked out about €54 per customer.

The ability of government bodies and agencies to mismanage money is a belief shared by practically every country in the world, and Ireland is no different. These are the types of cases which strengthen that belief.

There are significant amounts involved here, money which could be put to far better use. High energy prices are a punishing reality for all, but the main lesson from the overcharging situation is not the relatively small amounts involved but the realisation that ESB Networks was unable to issue accurate bills.

Similarly, many schools are crying out for better facilities and more staff while the Department of Education has been unable to wean itself off posting pay slips — despite acknowledging the costs that that entails. There is an irony lurking somewhere in the fact that the Department of Education has not learned to follow through on promises to develop a new electronic payroll system.

The broader context here involves a general reluctance to embrace efficiency in the public sector, something visible in the search for a new director of the Residential Tenancies Board.

The starting salary for the new director is just over €156,000, rising to €178,000, even though the RTB was described by the outgoing director as a “small public body”.

A more realistic approach to postage, billing, and salaries would serve us all well.

Bryan Dobson's public service

Fragmentation of the media landscape means the old days of the monoculture, when one could be reasonably sure what the entire country was watching or listening to, are long gone. 

Despite that fragmentation, there was a general sense of the end of an era with the announcement yesterday that newsreader Bryan Dobson is to retire after 37 years with RTÉ — 21 of those years were spent anchoring the Six One News, which made him a familiar presence in households all over Ireland. 

Dobson’s furred tenor informed the country of many seismic events over the course of those two decades, and the gravitas with which he approached sensitive and emotive subjects was reassuring to many viewers.

Politicians such as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin paid tribute to Dobson on his retirement, while RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst said he represented the best in public service journalism.

Given the turmoil in RTÉ in recent months, embodying the power of public service journalism was probably the best tribute Dobson could have received.