Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I raised this matter with the Tánaiste last Thursday, when two Bills were to be withdrawn, the Comhairle (Amendment) Bill and the Money Advice and Budgeting Service Bill, which would assist very poor people in getting access to credit and money advice. There is now only one Bill to be withdrawn, although there were two on Thursday. Why is that? Overworked journalists have not had an opportunity to follow up on the weekend commitments of the Minister for Social and Family Affairs to cap interest rates over a period. No doubt one of these days somebody will find out why we are not capping interest rates and I suspect the Minister for Finance will tell them.

Presumably, the Money Advice and Budgeting Service Bill is being kept on the list for window dressing purposes. Although the Minister could not express acute enough concern about the plight of poor people before Christmas, he is not at all upset now. This Bill is left on the list for blatant window dressing purposes. Is it not the case that nothing will be brought forward in the lifetime of this Government to help unfortunate poor people who are in the grip of moneylenders and who cannot access credit in the normal way?

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