Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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On these amendments, there are two issues I want to flag, one of which I raised on Second Stage and the other I will raise here today. What the Minister is trying to do here to incentive electronic payments is a positive development. In these amendments he is trying to deal with some of the anomalies that have been flagged on foot of the introduction of this measure. As the Minister is aware this is on foot of the movement to the interchange fee cap which kicks in from 9 December. Is it possible for the Minister to introduce it at an earlier date than 9 December? I asked on Second Stage that it be introduced from 1 December, purely because there are only 24 days in the run up to Christmas, to give retailers the maximum opportunity to comply, rather than on 9 December as proposed under the EU directive.

We are moving from a fixed rate charge per transaction to a percentage of the overall value of the transaction. While that incentivises people to use cards for small payments the difficulty is it prohibits them from using cards for large payments because the charge is now a percentage of the overall bill. Traditionally, the cohort that has been slowest to move from the cheque book has been the farming community. If a farmer is buying cattle at a mart and given that the charge is a percentage of the transaction we are talking about a significant fee being generated which either the farmer or the co-operative in the mart has to carry. Is it possible to have a look at the directive before it is implemented fully so that we are not introducing a further disincentive to electronic payments where large amounts are involved and forcing people to go back to the old paper-based systems and cheques? I understand that some businesses that deal with large transactions including the co-operative livestock marts are looking to withdraw this particular service because of the banking fees involved.