Modern banking is coming to the people of Inis Mór in the Aran Islands. This time next week islanders will have become very familiar with their first automatic telling machine.
The cash machine is a "first" for an Irish offshore island, according to the Bank of Ireland which is due to install the equipment in Powell's supermarket at Cill Rónáin on May 9th. "We're delighted - we have been looking for this for six years," Ms Elizabeth Mullen, owner of Powell's, told The Irish Times. Weather permitting, the Pass machine is due to be loaded into a van next Friday, which will in turn be loaded onto the deck of the freight cargo vessel servicing the islands from Galway docks.
"It will be a great boost for tourism, because we estimate that 70 per cent of visitors here don't have much cash at all when they are travelling," she said.
The island's population of 630 multiplies four times during the tourist season, but many visitors are unaware that the bank service on the island is limited to opening once a week in winter and twice weekly in summer.
