Is Greystones Becoming A Self-Service Town…?

Somewhere…

t would appear that, when it comes to public services, Greystones is slowly turning into a No Man’s Land…

With our local Bank Of Ireland reportedly planning on having tellers for only the first half of the day, and Irish Rail looking to turn Greystones into yet another unmanned train station, everywhere you look, the human touch is being taken out of the equation.

We had first heard rumours a little under a month ago about Greystones’ Bank Of Ireland plans to have tellers only on the morning shifts. Something Irish Permanent seemed to have embraced already. We emailed the lovely Mary, Bank Of Ireland’s branch manager in Greystones, back on June 19th, but the automated reply informed us the good lady was on her holiers, and that Ian was the man to ask. So, we emailed Ian.

No reply.

A subsequent Letter Of Opposition in late June by local politicians over such cashier restrictions – and closures – by Bank of Ireland all across Wicklow let us know that the rumours were very probably true.

So, we emailed Mary again on July 3rd. And again today. No reply.

Not that we had all that much luck with Irish Rail either.

Ringing their main queries line six days ago got us a promise that someone would be in touch about exactly what plans Irish Rail have for Greystones station.

No reply.

And that’s when we noticed that Wicklow Homes had moved out of the Dart station building. A call to the properties division of Irish Rail got us an email address. 

No reply.

As you can see, it’s been pretty much no reply all the way. It does look like Bank Of Ireland are planning mornings-only for their cashiers, and, given that our local train station is very rarely manned as it stands, there’s a very good chance it might just be completely unmanned in the not-too-distant future.

As to the vacant spot left in the train station by Wicklow Homes, one wag assured me that it was going to be a coffee shop. Which, when you think about it, would be the perfect spot for the quick takeaway.

The very same person told me that a coffee chain was also going into that little shop-front space SuperValu sliced off during their recent refurbishment too. Again, that wouldn’t surprise us.

We’ve always said it – if there’s one thing this town really needs, it’s more coffee shops.

This just in – an update on the Bank Of Ireland changes from Mark Leech, Media Relations Officer: In the case of the Greystones branch we are moving to a five day ‘morning-only counter service’, with staff available on the floor for the afternoon. Our staff will be available on the floor to assist customers to use the available in-branch services and advise on products such as mortgages, investments, and insurance.