Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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Yes. The correspondence from the Ceann Comhairle mentioned incidental expenses. The budget of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission is in the order of €12.8 billion per annum, which is fairly significant. The Bill states that there should be basic transparency. It states that the person who purchases the gift voucher goes into the transaction with their eyes wide open. The person who is the recipient of a gift voucher should know the exact terms and conditions, as well as details of its expiry. Gift vouchers often have very little text on them or any details relating to the expiry date. I imagine we are all on the same page on this.

It is estimated that the spend on gift vouchers per annum is some €350 million, which is a very significant amount of money. Pricewatch, which monitors prices in conjunction with the Consumers' Association of Ireland, estimates that between 15% and 20% of vouchers are never cashed in. Some get lost but in many cases people put them away, not thinking they have expiry dates. People who do not use a voucher are at a huge loss in such circumstances.

This is about bringing certainty, transparency and a bit of definition to what people sign up to when they buy a voucher. There is an important distinction between vouchers and electronic money, which we discussed on Second Stage in the Dáil. Electronic money cards, such as One4all cards which can be used in an array of situations, are properly and appropriately regulated by the EU Communities (Electronic Money) Regulations 2018 and by the anti-money laundering regulations. We are not really concerned with that segment of the market. It accounts for one third of the spend of €350 million to which I referred but we are concerned about the other two thirds.

There are also issues around the presentation of a voucher. One is the issue of whether a person is entitled to receive change if they present a voucher for €100 to buy goods or a service costing €80. In some cases change has been refused when this happens and there have even been cases where the balance on the voucher is cancelled. There have been cases where a person presented two vouchers to purchase a single product or service but they were declined. In others, people present a voucher when a shop is holding a sale but the shop may have a policy not to accept vouchers at such time. Similarly, some pubs or restaurants do not accept vouchers at busy times. All these things need to be transparent in the terms and conditions of a voucher or gift card so that, when the purchaser is buying one, they know exactly what they are signing up to.