Dormant accounts notice
Senator Leyden raised a dormant accounts advertisement and the difficulty of reactivating his own account. Others briefly acknowledged the point before he continued on saving with An Post and the wider importance of the issue.
I want to raise an issue the Leader may not be able to do much about but I want him to be aware of it. I am more anxious that "Liveline" would note it because it communicates with more people than any other radio programme. This is the issue of the notice on dormant accounts by Banking and Payments Federation Ireland. The advertisement, which mentioned the Dormant Accounts Act 2001, appeared in yesterday's edition of the Daily Star and advised people who have may have a dormant account to contact the bank or An Post. If there is no activity on an account for a period of time, the funds are taken by the State and dealt with by the National Treasury Management Agency.
My wife and I have a small rainy day fund of less than €1,000 in An Post. I came across the book recently and went about reactivating it. I went to the GPO, where I was told the money had gone to the Government
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I thank Senator Leyden very much.
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I am sure it will look after it very well but I would prefer to look after it myself. I then endeavoured to reactivate the account because I recommend that people save with An Post. Young people should save with An Post and have a post office savings account. Thousands of young people put their holy communion money into an account but did not check it out and the money is gone.
The Order of Business is a very good opportunity to bring matters of importance to the attention of people. There is a procedure involved in getting the money back and I have been working on it for three weeks. I had to send in a copy of our passports, the account number of the agency or company being dealt with and proof of address. That is all I have heard. I want my money back and I want it back now. We need it for the rainy day fund and facing into Brexit we have a lot of problems. I ask our friends in the media to pick this up. I only saw the advertisement in the Daily Star, which is not read by that many people. Someone needs to go on radio and television to inform the public of their right to claim back the funds they own.
It is a good, positive step in the right direction. I do not know the exact number but millions of euro are taken by the State every year and people are deprived of their money.