Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome improved regulation of finance services, especially when it comes to helping young people to get finance for cars and other vehicles. The Consumer Credit Act needs to be amended to ensure transparency and facilitate the Central Bank to publish information around credit agreements. Until now, there was not proper regulation of the terms given to people who bought cars on credit. This Bill will ensure that the interest customers are charged is transparent and the APR is included in the paperwork. In addition, personal contract plans will have to be agreed by the Central Bank before each agreement is sanctioned. I am surprised, however, that it has taken so long for these changes to be implemented. As of February 2020, there were 62,078 PCPs in operation in Ireland, which was an increase of 527% since 2014. That is a shocking statistic in an unregulated market.

When Covid-19 hit, we saw clearly which organisations stood alongside people and kept our SMEs going. These were the organisations that came to people and said they would do what they could to keep them going. What of the banks that were bailed out by a previous Government and the vulture funds? What happened in our banking system this time was that the banks said they would extend the term of loans. They stopped people's payments but those customers will still have to pay off what they owe within the term of the loan. The banks did not, in fact, extend the term. They gave people a break of three or six months but they still have to pay back what they owe within the original term.

This meant that when the businesses reopened, they had higher rates and repayments.

The only financial institutions to stand up for people in the rural area of County Limerick that I come from were the credit unions. They told their members to come in and speak to them. The credit unions were not among the five financial institutions the Government named when it stated that it was going to help all businesses. I asked about that in the Dáil and was told the Government was speaking to credit unions but it did not include credit unions among the five banking institutions it was going to help. The credit unions are the only ones that helped people. Why is that the case? Members who walk into their credit unions are greeted and asked how they are rather than being referred to by a number, as is the case in the banking system. The banks have taken away everything personal from their customers and are trying to move everything online. We know that in a pandemic the best way forward is for the banking sector to engage at a local level. It used to be the case that customers knew their local bank manager and the staff of the local branch but now everything has been centralised and the banks want everything to be tap this, tap that and enter your password. Nobody in the banking system knows their customers. That is being taken away from the people working in the banking sector. The hierarchy in the banking sector want this but the people who work in the banks and do the real work on the ground do not.

Credit unions went to their customers and invited them in to meet. They delayed payments and agreed to extend loans such that customers could take a break for three months or six months and then restart the loan. In that way, when businesses reopened the repayments were the same and they were not paying a higher interest rate and did not have to cover the business within the term of the loan. That is what credit unions around Ireland did. What is the Government doing to credit unions? It is over-regulating them.

The other thing credit unions do for this country is that the boards of all credit unions are made up of volunteers from the locality in which a credit union is situated. They know the people around them. They know who is in trouble and who they can try to help. They have local knowledge, so their customers are not a number but, rather, are treated as people and as members of the credit union. Credit union members make up the volunteers on the boards of credit unions. That is why credit unions should be looked after, just as they have looked after their members. The history of the banking sector shows that at every chance the banks get, they close the door on their customers.

The Minister should consider which institutions have helped SMEs and young people to survive in a pandemic and which will future-proof SMEs coming out of the pandemic. The banks need to take a leaf out of the book of credit unions and make sure that the next generation can open their businesses and carry on banking locally. We need investment for all SMEs. Some 51% of people in Ireland are employed by SMEs. We saw the comical things that went on last night in respect of Covid passes into premises. That is fine for a business that has 20, 30, 40 or 50 employees but what about the person who has only one or two employees and now has to try to take on another employee? Small businesses such as that cannot find people to take jobs because people are already working. Those who are not working probably cannot go back to work because either they are not vaccinated due to the lack of vaccines or for some other reason.

This comes back to the those who are making a difference, namely, the self-employed who own the SMEs which employ 51% of people. Those employers go to their financial institutions which should be there to protect them. They should come to the Government. The Government should be there to protect SMEs and future-proof them. How did it future-proof them? It went to Europe, cap in hand, seeking €1 billion to restart the economy but only got €915 million, whereas other European countries with the same populations as Ireland asked for €10 billion and got €6.3 billion to future-proof their next generations and SMEs that were in trouble. What does that tell us? Maybe the Government needs to take a lesson from SMEs. They could let it know what it is really like to run a business.

I have been self-employed all my life. I am very lucky to have great employees and I consider them friends. They allow me to come to this House to fight the case for Limerick. We now have a voice that can counteract the bizarre stuff that is going on within the Government. I am fortunate to have a family that helps to run my business, which allows me to come to Dublin and give Limerick a true voice for the self-employed and other businesspeople. For generations, those people elected Deputies who they thought would represent the county but who, instead, came up here and signed documents and were told what to do. If a politician is being told what to do, he or she should not run for election. The only people who should tell Oireachtas Members what to do are those who elected us. We represent them to the best of our ability and that is what I am doing here.

I have been on the road since I was 15 years of age. I have and education of life. I have had hard years but I was surrounded by great people from financial institutions and SMEs who kept my business going through the hard times. I cannot say the same about the Government. Financial institutions such as credit unions, as well as hardware businesses and other SMEs that support all local business, are the only reason many SMEs are still operating.

I hope that all present listen to this. As things open up, I want people to remember who looked after them while Covid was here and to support local businesses. Revenue from online businesses does not come to one's local area; it goes to central parts. People should research where their money is going when they shop online. Creameries have closed down because although people thought they were supporting their local creameries, the money was going to a central fund outside the county. People need to look after SMEs and SMEs will look after them.

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