Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

This is a modest Bill which seeks to cap interest rates on loans charged to the most disenfranchised and economically desperate of our citizens at 40%. It should be remembered that the group which relies most on these types of loans is the working poor. I am aware from my own constituency of Meath West that these are regular individuals who have suffered the consequences of the collapsed economy. They are working reduced hours or have lost their jobs and are consequently caught in the debt trap. These people should be protected and defended. Other speakers have agreed that it is unacceptable that rates can be set at X, Y or Z, but they will not go so far as to vote for a cap to be imposed. It has been claimed that the imposition of a cap would drive lending underground. The State has decided that the best way to deal with the drugs issue is to make them illegal and their sale a law and order issue. Surely driving illegal moneylenders underground will make their activity a law and order issue which can be dealt with as such.

Last night the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, outlined the Government's response to our proposal, a response that is endorsed by the Labour Party. Since I was elected to this House I have heard it repeated ad nauseam, by members of that party in particular, that Sinn Féin is a party of negativity, bereft of any ideas as to how the country should be run. This motion is the latest in a series of reasonable and progressive motions that we in Sinn Féin have brought forward in Private Members' time, every one of which has been opposed by the Labour Party. It has opposed Sinn Féin motions to safeguard Moore Street, where James Connolly lay injured before giving up his command. It has opposed our motions to retain services at Roscommon hospital and to repeal the household charge. The Labour Party that marches proudly on May Day opposed Sinn Féin motions of support for schools in the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, scheme. Our motions to withhold the Anglo Irish Bank promissory note and to safeguard State assets were rejected. The Labour Party, a party of the left, has likewise opposed our motions to reverse cuts to community employment schemes and to retain the ESB in public ownership. Now the party which owes its political DNA to Larkin and Connolly is opposing a modest Sinn Féin motion to curtail the excesses of moneylenders. As the Dáil session draws to a close, one has to question the role of the Labour Party in government. How can it claim to have remained true in any way to its legacy and principles? The party has sided with commercial landlords to maintain upward-only rents. Its Ministers have delivered bailouts to bankers and sided with the developers in the National Asset Management Agency. The Labour Party in government has connived with employers to reduce the premium for Sunday working. Given that the party has so resolutely delivered Frankfurt's way, it should be no surprise that it now proposes to deliver for moneylenders.

As we approach the summer recess, Government Deputies, Ministers and advisers will be flying away to the sun. When they walk past the airport porters, bar staff and waiters who are earning less on a Sunday because of the measures they introduced, let them reflect, as Labour Party Members, on what they have achieved. Let them explain to the 200 people leaving Dublin Airport daily to find work abroad the role their party has played in government. I am highlighting the role of the Labour Party in all of this because we expected better from it.

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