Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to tease that out a little bit further. Is there any evidence? The Minister of State has said half of the moneylenders will not be affected by the Bill because their charges are below the maximum rate and half are above it and they will be affected. The core point that he made is that this would scare people off. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party believe that if lenders cannot charge €480 on a €1,000 loan, then there is no market for them in Ireland, so we need to allow these companies to be able to charge that level of interest. How did the Minister of State come up with that figure? How did he come up with €480, as opposed to what I am proposing here for the first three years, which is €360 or some number in between? Where did €480 come from?