AIB ‘cashless’ debacle – ‘the people’s power prevailed’

“The GAA never really gets involved in politics, and AIB always supported the club championship. Their ad is always how they back rural communities, but you’d have to wonder what head office were thinking.”

The words of Liam O’Doherty, chair of Mitchelstown Community Forum and also chair of Ballygiblin GAA on the ‘cashless’ debacle by AIB. While stating that such a move would at least ‘secure the future of the post office’ and that the area has ‘a big Credit Union’, he mused however the contradiction between the support the bank has shown the GAA, including the Junior Club Hurling Championship in which Ballygiblin reached the All-Ireland final earlier this year, and the attitude shown by the multinational.

Meanwhile down West Waterford way, Marie O’Donoghue, proprietor of The Vault Café, said she was glad to see the reversal of the bank’s decision to go cashless.

“It’s important to the infrastructure of the town. There are a lot of people and businesses who are not in a position to go cashless. Bank of Ireland was already taken out of the town, to make AIB cashless would be a huge loss,” Ms O’Donoghue said, while Labour councillor John Pratt said the reversal had proven that ‘the people’s power had prevailed’.

Full story in this week’s Print & Digital Edition