The Usage, Cost and Pricing of Retail Payments in Ireland

Effective, safe and efficient payment systems are important to facilitate real and financial transactions in advanced economies, though the choice of payment channel differs widely across Europe. Ireland has the second highest usage of cheques in Europe, the highest ATM withdrawal per capita and still pays out half of all social welfare payments in cash. Cheques are a very expensive form of payment, and much less efficient than debit cards. Ireland could save up to €1bn per year by migrating to more efficient payment instruments. One impediment to a faster migration is that the pricing of payments in Ireland is not commensurate with the cost of provision. Only 46% of the costs of providing cash and cheques services are recouped by banks, with significant crosssubsidisation at the expense of electronic payments.