Households will soon be advised to keep a small amount of cash at home in case of emergencies.
It is part of an update to public advice on what to do during extreme events like power outages due to weather or cyber-attacks.
Other European countries, such as Austria, Finland and the Netherlands, have already recommended keeping a sum of between €70 and €100 per household member in case of emergencies, or enough to pay for essentials for 72 hours.
While generally people have been warned against keeping cash at home, especially older people, Tanáiste Simon Harris recently confirmed the Government will soon issue new guidelines advising households to have a small amount of cash in notes at home.
Storm Éowyn earlier this year left thousands of people without power and was a reminder of how vulnerable households are when they are cut off.
But wider technical outages can also have a massive impact on all our lives.
"All our lives in some ways now are reliant on a digital element," cyber security expert Brian Honan of BH Consulting told RTÉ radio's News at One.
"We saw major disruptions back in 2021 to the HSE due to the ransomware attack against the HSE.
"But in recent months we've seen major disruptions to other service providers when the likes of Amazon, AWS went down."
The technical problems that hit the internet infrastructure firm, Cloudflare, earlier this month caused a wide range of apps and websites to go down, affecting millions of users.
"It’s sensible for businesses and individuals not just to consider keeping cash in order to be able buy goods in the events of a prolonged outage, but businesses should look at their digital footprint.
"If there is a power outage and you run a shop, can you still run your cash register?"
Seán Moynihan of Alone says they are doing a huge amount of training to ensure older people are cyber aware and technically proficient.
While many older people will have been warned against keeping cash at home, he says it is sensible to have some cash in the event of am emergency.
"We all need access to cash for emergency purposes. It’s good advice for older people and the rest of us."
