Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand that. What is excluded from the legislation, which the Deputy has talked about, is what we call the informal credit. I mean where a person buys something in a shop on tick and pays the money at the weekend or at the end of the month. Those types of informal arrangements where there is no interest charged are the types that have been excluded up to now and do not prevent the shop from giving credit. They are the ones in the exemption that has been referred to. We do not want to interfere with that type of business because that is how people operate. Agreeing to buy something now and paying it off at the weekend is excluded.

I can confirm that the officials have said that they have gone through the wording of this provision specifically with the Central Bank and the Department of Finance. They are totally satisfied with the particular wording of the amendment and I can supply further clarification.