Ireland announced they were ceasing their involvement in the partnership in 2011. On 9 February 2011, EBS Building Society said that it would issue MasterCard debit cards instead of Laser from the second half of 2011. In July 2011, AIB announced that it would cease issuing Laser cards from 2011, leaving National Irish Bank as the final issuer in the Laser card system, leading to speculation that the scheme would close in 2012. It was reported that banks were turning away from Laser because of some difficulties encountered by consumers in making online purchases. However, customers began to complain almost immediately about numerous difficulties caused by the premature withdrawal of Laser cards. Some retailers who were able to give cashback on Laser cards were unwilling or unable to do so on the replacement cards; Permanent TSB issued a second replacement Visa Debit card to its customers in April 2011 due to the initial replacement chip and some older terminals not being compatible (resulting in refusal of cashback). Other retailers who had been charged a small flat-rate per-transaction fee for Laser transactions found that they were charged a percentage of the value of the transaction for the replacement cards. Organisations such as Betfair which did not charge customers for Laser card transactions began to charge these customers 1.5% commission on transactions using the replacement Visa Debit cards. Merchant services companies did not advertise whether there were any differences in their charges for the two types of debit card. Some customers reported being charged foreign usage fees on Visa Debit cards in Northern Ireland, which had not been charged on the old cards. Website and e-commerce system gateways Ogone, ICEPAY, WorldPay, Netbanx.com, Moneybookers.com, CreditCall, DataCash, Realex, TNS and SagePay provided Laser payment gateways. See also List of Irish companies References External links Official site Irish Payments Services Organisation Debit cards Debit card issuer associations Financial services in the Republic of Ireland Products introduced in 1996 Products and services discontinued in 2014 1996 establishments in Ireland 2014 disestablishments in Ireland