Thurles Information

OK, I am extremely sorry and I humbly apologise, but you must understand, when you get to my age you are not as bright and forward thinking as you once were and I suppose this is only to be expected.

But you all have to agree, my brothers and sisters, that placing a two lane pedestrian crossing across Liberty Square in Thurles, at the exit from a public car park, normally gives the casual observer, like myself, the impression that both our County Council and Urban District Council representatives are abusing the hip flask or snorting the white powder through a rolled up twenty. (I have to be careful with what I say here, in case children accidentally find this blog, while in search of World of Warcraft.)

Bank of Ireland, Thurles. We Charge More.

To be fair, how was I to know that “Thurles Bank of Ireland” were going to unexpectedly increase their fee charges. It only hit me yesterday the true reason for the positioning of this pedestrian crossing. It was specially designed as a safety measure to assist small account holders, in their Lemming style rush, to move their deposit accounts from the Bank of Ireland to the Ulster Bank opposite, during busy daily traffic jams.

I am not sure which of our beloved Councils was responsible for this futuristic planning, as it gets harder to understand, daily, who runs what and what is responsible for who.  However, following in the footprints of our past Fianna Fail leader Brian Cowen, I believe I must now make a national apology to these forward thinkers and future planners, who have turned Liberty Square into such a death trap.

But what’s done is done and in the words of  the well known song ‘My Way‘ – “Regrets I’ve had a few, but then again, to few to mention.”

Instead, let us concentrate on Bank of Ireland and their new fee structure and ask yourself are these charges fair in the present economic climate, when the Irish workforce have already come to the rescue of such institutions?

Certainly, charities have hit out at this bank for changing their fee structure on basic current accounts, which means more customers will pay charges. Following these announced changes, this countries largest, voluntary, charitable organisation the Society of St Vincent de Paul says it is going to take the issue up with the banks early in the New Year.

From 21st February last, in a three-month period, Bank of Ireland customers will have to see traffic of €3,000 pass through their account, and conduct nine transactions online or by telephone banking. These changes stand to affect mostly people on social welfare and low incomes who would not have €3,000 going through their accounts in any three months. The financial markets crisis has made it harder for banks to raise money in traditional ways – by taking in deposits and raising money through inter-bank loans.  Note, these new charges are not introduced to target the friendly builders and developers they once took to their beds. This is about penalising the average customer and clearly, BOI don’t care if small customers close their accounts and move elsewhere, which is what will happen. Hence it is very obvious that the BOI don’t see themselves, in the future, as a bank of the common people, well I suppose possibly they never did.

Unfortunately we, the true workers and only real backbone of this country, have been forced to give our weekly earnings to keep these institutions in fat salaries and bonuses, to which they now have grown extremely accustomed.

Bank of Ireland’s new charges for current account holders have also been criticised by the Free Legal Advice Centre. Most of the bank’s 1.2 million current account holders will be subject to these new fees. Account holders who do not meet the new criteria will now be charged 28c for each transaction they make. The Free Legal Advice centre states that it “unfair and ill-considered.”  This centre also state that  people on low incomes will not be able to avoid these charges.

Bank of Ireland have argued that providing customers with current account facilities costs it money and these new charges will not affect the 26% of Bank of Ireland customers who hold “Golden Years” or student accounts.

However you look at it, the nature of the implemented charges by BOI mean that those who have large transactions will suffer the least and conversely, those who cannot make large payments will just suffer.

It is time, I believe, to use that pedestrian crossing in Liberty Square, with the Ulster bank positioned conveniently right opposite. They do a nice little 4% daily rate on savings and Maria, Sonya, Camillus, James or Brede are usually more than happy to assist their daily customers.

The days of servile acceptance, while bowing to greedy institutions, have long passed here on the island of fairies and leprechauns.