Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I acknowledge the fact that the question was tabled to the Minister for Finance. I mentioned the Minister for Justice and Equality because gardaí were involved. An investigation should be carried out in both Departments.

The Minister of State referred to the Consumer Credit Act 1995, but legislation does not matter to the people concerned. They came at the dead of night and broke into a neighbour's property. The owner of the premises was awakened by a good neighbour. The Community Alert scheme is very important in my county. I am a member of the national board of Muintir na Tíre which maintains it. The neighbour was going to work at 4.30 a.m. and heading for Dublin when he saw the activity at a cross-roads and machines being loaded up.

I accept what the Minister of State said about credit intermediaries and so on, but none of what he described happened in this case. Two years ago the owner of the business tried to reconstruct the payments with a lady called Sinéad Hayes from Bank of Ireland, but she was not seen again until she contacted it this week to try to mend fences.

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