Questions remain about why gardaí were on the streets monitoring ATMs following a Bank of Ireland technical issue on Tuesday night, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties has said.
The problems first emerged on Tuesday afternoon when customers were unable to access ATM services although contactless, card and ATM services were unaffected.
Reports on social media suggested that some customers had been able to transfer more money than they had in their Bank of Ireland accounts to other external accounts and then withdraw the cash from ATMs.
The problem led to queues forming at some ATMs around the country last night.
The Minister for Public Expenditure has said that the malfunction at Bank of Ireland is "extremely serious" and is "of concern".
However, he said he does "not believe our national reputation has been affected" by the issue.
"I don't believe that data as an issue is something that is in any way affecting our national reputation."
Minister Donohoe also said the Minister for Finance has recognised the seriousness of the issue by asking the Central Bank to carry out an evaluation of what happened and "what this means for the ability of Bank of Ireland systems to function in the future".
An Garda Síochána has said that decisions to send gardaí to some ATMs were made locally on a "case-by-case basis".
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, the Executive Director with the ICCL said there must be a clear legal basis if gardaí are involved in actions that restricts people rights', movement or ability to access to finance.
Liam Herrick said that that legal basis must also be clear and transparent.
It would be helpful if Garda Commissioner Drew Harris provided more information on the matter, Mr Herrick said.
On it being a potential public order problem, Mr Herrick said that this needs to be assessed and compared with the general public concern at the moment about unresponsiveness and an ineffectual garda response to serious public order issues in Dublin city in particular.
"We see in Dublin there are serious crimes, life threatening assaults in the Temple Bar area and in the north inner city area, we can only assume there are significant volumes of calls from businesses and community organisations, the public don't feel receive the same level of response," Mr Herrick said.
He added that a question remains about what guards did when they attend the scenes, as there was footage on social media of gardaí physically blocking of ATMs.
Mr Herrick asked how a guard at an ATM would have any information to provide financial advice to people about their legal basis for accessing money.
Yesterday evening People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy also said Commissioner Harris should outline the circumstances behind the presence of gardaí at Bank of Ireland ATMs.
Meanwhile Bank of Ireland has said all customer account balances should now be up to date.
The bank encouraged customers with outstanding queries to visit a local branch for assistance or call the helpline on 0818-365-365.
Additional reporting Sinead Spain
