Back when the late Joe Walsh was Minister for Agriculture, it seemed like we were in and out of the Department of Agriculture on Kildare St two or three times a month for press conferences.

Last week, I walked through the doors of the Department for the first time in around two years for a post-Budget briefing.

And it was a great feeling to be back among colleagues at an in-person event.

The night before, the nice lady from my bank told me she would have to cancel my bank card as I had been scammed.

It is not the first time this has happened to yours truly, but it is no less discombobulating to be left financially paralysed in such a way. They had two goes at it, robbing around €300 (which was later returned to my account thanks to the work of the banks fraud department).

I went to the ATM to withdraw cash with the emergency pin issued to me to keep me going for a day or two

The lady answered: “I have no idea”, as if she is asked the routine question by desperate customers every time before I had finished asking the inevitable “How did it happen?” question.

After leaving the Department briefing, I went to the ATM to withdraw cash with the emergency pin issued to me to keep me going for a day or two. All was not lost.

But then I arrived back to the car park only to discover that the ticket machine only accepted cards – no cash! I pressed the button and another nice lady answered only to tell me that she was beyond in some office God knows where and could not be of any immediate help, but maybe: “You could ask somebody else to pay for you and you give them cash?

Here I am hampered by the fact that I have been the victim of a scam being asked to employ what many might think on the face of it was some sort of an elaborate scam of my own. So no, I was not going to approach a complete stranger to ask them to pay my fee with their card in return for my cash in times of COVID-19.

Problem solved and I was out of jail. Talk about perfect timing

Lo and behold as I stood wondering what next looking into the empty office for any sign of life I got a friendly puck on the shoulder from Paul Collins, ex-Today FM sports presenter-turned-PR guru.

“Ah Paul, am I glad to see you.”

Problem solved and I was out of jail. Talk about perfect timing. I could be there all day and not meet one other I’d know.

I have been amazed at how I have been kind of apologising to shop assistants for paying with cash

It’s eight years ago since I was scammed whilst in Argentina. But I had some cash to tide me over. Up until last week, I have barely touched cash in almost two years. Tap, tap, tap has been the way to go in COVID-19 times.

In fact I have been amazed at how I have been kind of apologising to shop assistants for paying with cash, almost embarrassed that anybody would see me engaging in such unhygienic behaviour in these critical times. But beware the bank card scammers.

GAA reshuffle suggestion

The special GAA congress planned for this weekend is one of the most important for many years, for it proposes a seismic change in the football championship format. “Plan B” is not perfect but it certainly beats the status quo. There is the fear that the provincial championships will lose their prestige (most notably the Ulster championship) since the link between it and the All-Ireland series proper will be broken. Here is a suggestion, award a point for every game won in the provincial round robin series (a maximum of three points) and a bonus of two points for winning the provincial title to be carried into the All-Ireland league championship thus maintaining a link of sorts.