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

I understand. We were all in the same space on this in protecting vulnerable customers at a vulnerable period in the year just coming up to Christmas.

The Central Bank brought in the high-cost warning requirements, which came into effect on 1 September 2020, and the remainder of those regulations came into effect on 1 January 2021. Some of those have already come into effect since the discussion started around this legislation. It is very important that the "refer a friend" practice will be dealt with now under this legislation. When somebody gets a loan, many may say to a neighbour "This is where I got the loan". There are no statistics on that but it is a common way for people to hear about a particular moneylender or high-cost credit company. Provision to deal with this "refer a friend" practice is included in the legislation.

Banning advertising for certain periods of the year is probably a broader societal issue rather than being specific to this issue. That is something we did not do in the pre-legislative scrutiny with regard to the advertising industry. That would be a very broad debate that can happen in the Oireachtas, with much wider implications than this exact legislation. The credit unions have a good product out there. Some 102 credit unions have an offer called It Makes Sense, which are loans to help customers with household budgetary items. In many of these communities the credit unions are having an impact.

I would expect a reduction in the leaflet drops because, up to now, a key feature of moneylending has been the door-to-door collection. It is a key feature. People were calling to the housing estates, which Deputy Doherty referred to, monthly or weekly collecting money. Part of that may have been the delivery of leaflets. Under this legislation, the cost of a door-to-door collection is not facilitated. The moneylenders cannot charge for a door-to-door collection fee. We cannot stop them calling door to door to collect money, but they cannot charge for it or include it in the interest rate or a fee associated with the loan. I would genuinely expect there to be a significant reduction in the number of people calling to houses in housing estates collecting money and possibly delivering leaflets when they are doing the same exercise. It will be a by-product of this legislation. They will not be calling around to those housing estates regularly. There is, however, no proposal to abolish door-to-door leaflet drops.