Call to scrap physical cash would hurt economy

I’M responding to Travis Gleasure’s letter (June 16) on the phasing out of physical cash to boost our economy.

Should we allow a system where banks make more money off the people of this country by only having the options of “cheque, bank draft or credit/laser card payment options” available and withdraw actual physical cash from the system?

Have the people of this country not suffered enough at the hands of banks?

The idea that this will save the government and this country money in the long term is ludicrous. In fact, why don’t we rename Ireland “Airstrip one” and start the introduction of such a system with Finance Minister Michael Noonan stating “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen” akin to Ireland reflecting George Orwell’s book, 1984.

The government hasn’t given a figure of what is being lost to social welfare fraud and it seems to me that corruption of the state by bankers, developers and politicians would amount to a lot more than what social welfare fraud produces.

Is there enough space in the “cyber crime courses”, for the 400,000-plus unemployed in this country?

A helpline to introduce such a system would not reflect much difference on the social welfare queue nor would the printing jobs for the educational literature.

The Department of Finance has enough on its plate without wasting further taxpayers’ money by commissioning such a report.

Should we head towards such a system I would suggest that the people of Ireland stand up and oppose it. Your freedom of movement would be seriously curtailed.

Would you further put your families at risk by handing over more of your freedoms to the people who got us in this mess in the first place?

JP Farrell

Glasheen Road

Cork