Gardaí defend sending officers to Bank of Ireland ATMs amid rush to withdraw cash

Today at 18:06

Garda Headquarters has defended the decision to deploy personnel to some ATMs across the country after receiving over 40 calls concerning gatherings at cash machines.

A small number of public order incidents were reported last night while gardaí were also alerted to an incident of assault and robbery at one ATM.

It came after large crowds gathered at ATMs in locations including Dublin, Limerick and Dundalk as people took advantage of a glitch with the Bank of Ireland app and online services.

The major technological breakdown – which has since been resolved – allowed customers who had no money in their accounts to access funds and transfer it to their Revolut accounts before withdrawing the cash.

Queues at Bank of Ireland ATMs as customers with no money withdraw up to €1,000 in cash

Last night footage emerged of gardaí manning ATMs in Dundalk while other images showed gardaí patrolling areas where large queues had formed.

This has led to criticism of the decision to deploy gardaí to ATMs with Labour Party TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin saying there is “something unnerving” about gardaí being involved in “protecting” the cash machines.

In a lengthy statement this evening, Garda Headquarters said that it became aware of an “unusual volume of public activity” at some ATMs across the country.

“Gardaí received in excess of 40 calls across our four Regional Garda Control Rooms, between 8pm and 12 midnight, from members of the public primarily concerned as to the level of public activity taking place and crowds gathering at ATMs but also including small number of calls at ATMs relating to public order incidents and one call in relation to an assault/robbery,” the statement said.

It added that “events last night involved a complicated set of circumstances involving large sums of cash in circulation, in some instances large crowds and queues gathering and a developing and escalating situation.

“In response to this dynamic and evolving situation and to ensure public safety, decisions were made locally on a case-by-case basis depending on the circumstances presenting to control rooms and operational members.”

The statement added: “This is the reality of day to day operational policing.”

Earlier Bank of Ireland said it was aware that the technical issue meant some customers were able to withdraw or transfer funds above their normal limits.

“These transfers and withdrawals will be applied to customers’ accounts today. We urge any customer who may find themselves in financial difficulty due to overdrawing on their account to contact us.

“We sincerely apologise for the disruption this outage caused – we know we fell far below the standards our customers expect from us,” Bank of Ireland said in a statement.