A round-up of other stories in brief.

Banks target customers with Polish services

Financial institutions are targeting the estimated 160,000 Polish people living in the Republic with new customer services and guides published in the Polish language.

Bank of Ireland has launched a new Polish language telephone helpdesk. The helpdesk, available at 1890 365 444, offers a range of banking services to the Polish community in Ireland in their own language.

Permanent TSB has published a Polish language guide for its key banking products. The guide will be available in Permanent TSB branches and on its website. The bank has launched a recruitment drive to employ Polish speakers at its Open 24 call centres to assist online and telephone banking customers.

AIB has similar initiatives in place.

Bank of Ireland said the majority of Polish people opened a bank account within a month of arriving here and that there was a good savings culture among Polish people, with a general principle of saving half their earnings.

Bill seeks end to card charges

A draft bill proposing the abolition of credit card handling charges has been proposed by Senator Margaret Cox.

Handling fees are charged by airlines and ticket agents every time a customer pays for a ticket by either credit or debit card.

"Shops as well as internet portals benefit from providing their customers with a credit card payment facility. It is unfair then to penalise customers for paying by credit card, which frequently is the only method of payment offered when shopping online," Ms Cox said.