Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am encouraged by the Minister's closing remarks to the effect that his Department will evaluate the report. Perhaps we might have a solution to this very serious problem as an outcome of it. I acknowledge that the Minister has previously praised the credit union movement in Ireland, which he was quite right to do. This has been widely acknowledged by the credit union movement. There are five separate credit union branches in my constituency and I keep communications open with them. As parliamentarians, we all accept the need for regulation and section 35. However, I hope I am not misquoting the Minister when I recall that at one stage he said he would consider a review of the section as the economic climate changed. I hope I am right in saying this. That is why I am encouraged by his final remarks and hope something will come out of this. We must take people away from loan sharks. It is not specifically an urban problem; it is widespread in rural Ireland where families also fall to the mercy of moneylenders. I go back to the point that within the scope of the research there is an opportunity for the Department to operate within the parameters of such a scheme to solve the problem. The number of people I cited is phenomenal and the issue is causing a great deal of misery for many poor working families. As legislators, we should work to ease the pressures they are under. I thank the Minister for taking this matter and look forward to something more substantial emerging in the next couple of months to initiate something in this field.

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