Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to section 1 and to the provisions of the Bill more broadly. As the Minister of State said, this is a Bill I support. We hope the Minister of State will adopt an amendment later in terms of buy now, pay later schemes. I welcome a late amendment from the Department of Finance with regard to bringing those types of products under the regulatory framework, which is really important. I must say at the outset that it is a little bit frustrating that four years have passed. It is four years or more since I called for regulations on personal contract plan products. I engaged with the Central Bank and Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, at that point. Indeed, the CCPC had issues and concerns about this for a number of years before that.

We need to find a way to be able to act faster regarding the regulation of financial products. As the Minister of State indicated, there has been a massive increase in personal contract plans over the last number of years. Many customers are not fully aware of what they are fully signing up to in terms of the lack of credit checks but also that they cannot sell their vehicle if they fall into financial difficulties.

We will have an added challenge in terms of personal contract plans with regard to the transition to electric vehicles, EV. This very much needs to be carefully monitored and there is further work to be done. Four years on, however, we are on Committee Stage and, as the Minister of State said, there is broad support for this Bill.

As I said, I welcome the fact that an amendment is coming in terms of purchase now, pay later schemes. This is another area, particularly with Klarna entering the market here late last year, in which we see from other markets, particularly in Britain and elsewhere, that there has been an explosion of credit in the use of this facility. Again, many people are not familiar with the impact this can have in terms of missing payments. We will discuss that later but I broadly support the provisions of the Bill.