Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Deputy McGrath flagged that he may wish to return on Report Stage to the issue of definitions. The Central Bank favours the regulation of the retail credit firm as opposed to what is being proposed, namely, the regulation of a credit servicing firm. I do not believe the committee will be able to deal with this issue at this point. Notwithstanding our interaction with the Minister's officials, there is an issue with this. The three types of regulation in place at this point are regulation of the banks, which is the gold standard; regulation of the retail credit firms, which is a lesser standard; and regulation of the credit servicing firm, which is the weakest standard. It would not be appropriate to regulate the vulture funds with the least stringent standard. They are not servicing firms as they hold the loans of Irish consumers. From my point of view, we should proceed in respect of section 1, but it would be helpful to obtain a written submission from the Central Bank before we proceed to Report Stage. I am not suggesting that we take a step backwards but that the committee find a vehicle with which to engage with the Central Bank if anything appears in its submission.