Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach. His Government presides over an Ireland of soup kitchens, child homelessness, mothers queuing for formula and nappies, insecure employment and 300,000 people living in consistent poverty. To be clear, many of those people are at work. They get up at the crack of dawn and still struggle and fail to meet their basic requirements. I take it the Taoiseach is not suggesting that an interest rate of 49.9% is anything other than absolutely extortionate. Whatever argument he might make about the regulation of the financial services sector globally, there is no excuse for a Government standing over such a scandalous situation. That the State sanctions these outfits - ironically, in this case it is called Amigo Loans but I assure the Taoisesch that this amigo is no friend of anybody who borrows from it - and stands idly by and allows that to happen is nothing short of disgraceful.

We have put it to this House previously and we will again that we need a cap. I want the Taoiseach to commit to that and to accept, like me, that this is an outrageous situation. By the way, this is what is called mid-cost credit. Does the Taoiseach regard it as such?

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