The two big banks and Telecom Eireann have unveiled their plans for Ireland's first "cashless society". Ennis, Co Clare, should be functioning without coins by next September, and most of its 17,000 citizens will have their own "electronic purse". The test marketing forms part of the Information Age Town project, which will wire up the location with the latest technology.
The electronic purse - a plastic card with an embedded metal chip similar to a phonecard - will be accepted in lieu of notes or coins in around 300 local retail outlets. Telecom said it plans to upgrade all of the town's public telephones so that the cards work in them also.
The shopkeeper slots the shopper's cashcard into a small black box, and the amount left on the card appears on a screen facing the customer. The shopkeeper punches the cost of the item and the customer pushes a green button to approve the transaction.
"People will be able to pay for public telephone calls, newspapers, car parking and a range of other small-value purchases," a spokeswoman for Telecom Eireann said.
There are to be two versions of the card, a disposable one that expires like a telephone card, and a re-loadable one.
"Customers will be able to reload their cards directly from their bank accounts using either the special self-service machines installed by the banks in public places, or through Telecom Eireann payphones," the spokeswoman added.
The telephone company also plans to introduce phones built for ordinary homes that are equipped with a slot to re-load cards. Thousands of keyrings that can read how much money is left on a card are to be distributed in Ennis, allowing people perform a function akin to checking how much money is in a wallet or purse.
The three companies stressed yesterday that carrying the card was the equivalent of carrying around cash, and that if it were lost, so is the money. The maximum amount that anyone can load on a card will be around £50; a dishonest finder of a lost card could spend this amount, but would be unable to access the bank account to reload the card.
The cashless system, called Visa Cash, is already being tested in 17 countries around the world. Should the project prove successful, it is likely to be adopted in several European countries at once, probably in time for the introduction of the single currency.
"Acceptance in the marketplace, not the technology, is the main issue here," said Mr Gerard J. van Velzen, the managing director of Telecom Eireann's enterprises division.
The Ennis experiment would be used to test customer attitudes to electronic purses, gauge retailer reactions, and assess the commercial viability of rolling out the service on a broader basis, he added.
Telecom Eireann said last night that it had completed its electronic audit of the 11 schools in Ennis and would equip them with some 700 state-of-the-art computers over the Christmas break. The schools would also be hooked up for rapid Internet by ISDN line, a spokesman added.
The company said it had chosen a large building in the town's Bank Place to be the Information Age Town centre. The building will serve as a training facility for local people, and a visitor centre for tourists and those studying the project.
