Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Joyce. I will make a final comment as I know this is the end of the pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill, which has been quite lengthy. I hope we can now get the pre-legislative scrutiny report and move to Committee Stage. The question I will ask has been posed to me by somebody else so I am plagiarising. If we as an Oireachtas committee were to design a system, would we allow for moneylenders to be licensed and charge 288%, all in, for the cost of credit or annual percentage rate, APR? Would we allow for a moneylender to call to the doors of homes to collect the weekly payments? We simply would not. We would not allow a bank to do it; we should not allow a moneylender. Just because it exists today does not mean we need to tolerate it into the future.

This legislation is about modernising and protecting those customers who sometimes fall foul of moneylending. Perhaps unbeknownst to them, credit was available that was much cheaper, affordable and sustainable. Mr. Joyce made an important point in terms of the future. I can remember as a young gasúr the insurance man calling to our house every month to collect the insurance from my mum. That does not happen anymore. Things move on. Door-to-door collection should not be happening. It is a model that suits the moneylender. It builds up knowledge of when a christening or communion is taking place or when someone has a hospital appointment or family emergency. That is okay but in my view, it preys on vulnerabilities in a family network. We need to make sure there is a proper financial inclusion strategy and that credit unions and others are in a position to lend to consumers who need access to credit in a quick way.