Access to Cash – Our Assessments and Outcomes

Central Bank of Ireland is committed to keeping the public and stakeholders informed of our assessments of potential local deficiencies in cash access.

The Access to Cash legislation aims to ensure sufficient and effective access to cash throughout the country. This means access to an ATM or Cash Service Point (a location where you can withdraw and lodge cash and avail of personal assistance).

Our data shows that Ireland’s cash infrastructure is broadly in line with those levels and with the criteria set out in the legislation. Following the commencement of the Central Bank’s monitoring earlier in 2026, a number of new ATMs have already been deployed by the designated entities in communities across the country to ensure compliance with the criteria.

The legislation recognises that localised difficulties with cash access may arise, and provides for members of the public to notify the Central Bank where they believe that local deficiencies may be present. The local deficiencies framework, however, is not necessarily meant to increase the overall level of cash services in Ireland.

Rather, it serves to address specific, local instances of insufficient access to cash. In practice, different locations in Ireland will be served by ATM or cash service points to different extents, because of differences in underlying characteristics, such as distance, population or geographic factors. 

Members of the public who believe they have insufficient access to cash – whether that be ATMs or Cash Service Points – in a locality can notify the Central Bank. The Central Bank assesses the notification and determines whether a local deficiency exists. We publish a list of all fully completed local deficiency notifications received, along with their current status. 

Once we have concluded our assessment, we publish a Local Deficiency Assessment Outcome Report for the locality in question. This Assessment Outcome Report sets out our findings and next steps in the process including how we will engage with the designated entities.

List Of Local Deficiency Notifications

The Excel sheet below contains a list of all notifications received by Central Bank of Ireland. More information on how to make a notification is available on our assessment process guidelines page.

Local Deficiency Assessment Outcome Reports

Learnings From the Initial Set of Local Deficiency Notifications

On 28 October the Central Bank published its first Local Deficiencies Assessment Outcome Reports. There are learnings arising from these assessments which can be summarised as follows:

24/7 Availability: Many of the local deficiency notifications pointed to the lack of a 24/7 ATM as the rationale for a local deficiency. In reaching its determination around local deficiencies, the Central Bank takes into account a number of factors, including hours of operations. The lack of a 24/7 ATM, in and of itself, is not considered to be sufficient reason to reach a local deficiency determination. Of the approximately 4,000 ATMs across the country, only around 1 in 4 operate on a 24/7 basis. Taking a position that a lack of 24/7 ATMs would – on its own – be a sufficient reason for a local deficiency would imply a material change in Ireland’s overall cash infrastructure relative to levels that prevailed nationwide in December 2022.

Service issues: Many of the local deficiency notifications also pointed to concerns about ATM service issues (such as downtime or limited denominations) in the locality. These are important matters, but they fall outside the scope of the local deficiency process. As part of the overall Access to Cash framework, the Central Bank is introducing prescribed regulatory requirements that will establish minimum service standards for ATM operators. The regulations will outline ATM service standards relating to the hours of ATM availability, cash withdrawal limits, banknote denomination stocking, signage and information requirements and will also set limits for periods of planned unavailability of ATMs. The Regulations are expected to commence in 2027 at which point all operators will be required to comply with these standards.

List of Local Deficiency Assessment Outcome Reports

The document list below contains the outcome of all  Local Deficiency Assessments completed.

You can search for a specific Assessment Outcome Report by entering the local area. The date column reflects the date on which the Assessment Outcome was published.

Access to Cash – For today. For tomorrow. For the future.