ATM problems

Late night ATM blackout in Westport

Anton McNulty

HUNDREDS of tourists and locals were left without the price of a pint in Westport last Saturday night, when all the town’s ATM machines broke down.
On what was as one of the busiest nights of the summer so far, revellers were left frustrated when they found that none of the ATM machines were working. All four banks in the town – AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB – confirmed to The Mayo News that their ATMs were out of order on Saturday night.
The lack of available cash forced some people to use their credit and laser cards at the bars to get a drink. A barman who was working in a busy pub in Westport town centre said he had numerous inquiries on Saturday night as to the location of ATMs in the town.
“People kept asking where they could find a machine that was working and eventually people started paying for their drinks with their Laser cards, and asking for cash back. Some tourists were baffled that they could go to four different banks and none of the machines were working,” he said.
One man said he queued for 20 minutes on Saturday night to withdraw cash from the AIB machine on James Street, as it was the only one working, but it also stopped working. “In the end I had to go and borrow money from my sister to go to the night club. It seemed to me there was a lot of people left wondering what to do,” he said.
The cause of the problem remains unclear, but the banks confirmed that there was sufficient cash in each of the machines. It is thought that some of the machines may have stopped working after someone tried to tamper with them but no complaints were received by Gardaí in Westport.
A spokesperson for AIB in Westport told The Mayo News that their ATM was out of order from Friday evening until Monday morning. The spokesperson said the problem was caused by a cash jam which stopped the dispensing of money. An engineer could only arrive on Monday to fix the problem and because of the threat of ‘Tiger Raids’, employees are not allowed to come in at weekends to fix the problem.