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What is a crisis in Greece is an opportunity for Seamus Fahy 1,700 miles away in Dublin.

Fahy is offering a 15 percent discount for Greeks who want to store cash and valuables at Merrion Vaults, where 3,000 deposit boxes are protected underground in Dublin’s city center. He says he’s had about 20 Greek customers in recent months as concern mounted about how long the nation could stay in the euro region.

“If you lived in Athens, and had 200,000 euros, wouldn’t you try to get it out?” asks Fahy, a diamond dealer who opened the vaults in 2013, just off one of the city’s main Georgian-era squares, close to the Irish prime minister’s complex in Dublin.

Fahy may not be the only one benefiting from the woes of Greece, which on Monday imposed capital controls and shuttered banks as it prepares for a referendum that may risk its exit from the euro. The Greek turmoil provides Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s centrist coalition fodder in its election showdown within the year with Sinn Fein, Ireland’s version of Greece’s governing party, Syriza.

“Sinn Fein thought that Syriza could be a flagship for changing policies at an EU level,” said Niamh Hardiman, a professor of politics at University College Dublin. “That’s not happening.”

Read the whole article at Bloomberg

The  Independent.ie reported that it is has been claimed that “Phonewatch customers are at risk due to a feature that allows burglars to disable their systems before the alarm can be raised”

The article goes on to say that clever thieves are ripping the alarm systems off the walls when they enter the house. According to one caller on the RTE’s liveline, thieves have up to 30 seconds to rip the alarm system off the wall.

Historically when Gold and Silver Bullion has been purchased in Ireland, the Bullion Dealer has offered to store the physical bullion for the buyer in a vault overseas. No vaults were available in Ireland to securely store large stocks of bullion, hence overseas vaults. These vaults are typically located in countries such as Switzerland, Singapore, US, Germany & Australia. Bullion dealers generally charge a storage fee of 1% of the value of the bullion per annum. This storage fee will be slightly less if you have a large amount of bullion. The downside with this storage option is accessibility and ease of sale.

Another popular method of buying bullion is The Perth Mint Certificate Programme based in Australia. The bullion is stored in a government owned mint and you are issued with a certificate that details owners name and amount of gold that is stored on your behalf. Downside once again, is accessabilty. In addition, market skeptics suggest that the Australian government could confiscate the bullion if severe financial hardship was endured by the Western Australian Government.

When we launched our Safe Deposit Box business in Dublin, we provided various sized Safe Deposit Boxes capable of storing cash, jewellery, title deeds, gold bullion etc.

We quickly realised that there was also strong demand for larger secure vaults capable of storing Fine Art, Antiques etc. On a daily basis, we were receiving enquiries for larger storage units. We then contacted a number of Art and Antique Dealers and Galleries in Ireland who confirmed that such a service would be invaluable both to the themselves and to their customers.

We also contacted several Safe Deposit Box facilities in the UK to assess demand there. Harrods Safe Deposit Boxes in London confirmed to us that there was a waiting list of 4 years for their walk-in vaults. Typical clients were storing fine art, large antique furniture and gold / silver bullion in their larger vaults.

Merrion Vaults now offers this service to its customers.

Bitvendo, the company that provides Bitcoin ATM facilities here, has formed a partnership with Merrion Vaults to provide a safe deposit facility for the digital currency.

Giles Byrne, head of marketing with Bitvendo, said Merrion Vaults was a natural partner for the group as there was a demand from holders of Bitcoin for somewhere to store their digital currency safely. “We have encrypted wallets inside the vaults. If you want to send bitcoin into those wallets, they are stored offline in an encrypted format where nobody can hack them.”