Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am with the other Deputies on this. In a council estate in County Wicklow, not far from where I live, sub-prime lenders - legal loan sharks - are lending money for communions to people with very low incomes. I have spoken to a few people in this situation and the debts mount very quickly because the lenders charge ridiculous interest rates. I understand the whole moral hazard idea and that we need to disincentivise that sort of behaviour. However, I can well see a situation where some of these people would go after wedding rings and certainly after engagement rings. We can insert a value, since we have put in a value for everything else. We have put in €60, €400 and €6,000. I will therefore take the bait and suggest, off the top of my head, a value of €500 for a wedding ring. The asset on page 26 of the Bill is €400 or less. That covers the vast majority of wedding rings in the country and also covers a lot of engagement rings in this day and age. If a wedding ring has to be counted towards the sum of €400, anyone who has got a wedding ring on their finger will quickly find themselves unable to use this important mechanism. I will rise to the bait and suggest a figure of €500 or €1,000. I could certainly see a situation based on some of the unpleasant lending practices that are going on in County Wicklow, whereby people will definitely go after engagement rings. I would not put it past them to go after wedding rings either.

See this speech in context