Results 29,521-29,540 of 36,033 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I welcome that and agree entirely with the Minister of State because it is important that people know exactly what is involved. It will help with prudent lending and prudent borrowing as well. When will the regulations appear setting the fees for subsequent reports? I believe the fees could vary.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I move amendment No. 63: In page 19, between lines 36 and 37, to insert the following subsection: “(5) A credit information subject shall be issued with a record of his or her credit information once a year at no cost to him or her.”.This amendment allows credit information subjects to have access to their own information on the register each year on a free basis. The Minister...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I take the Minister's point about the amendment. This arises under section 17, detailing the purposes for which the information may be used by credit information providers. It was not so long ago that many people, including me, got phone calls from financial institutions telling me that an overdraft had been extended again and again. At one stage we figured out that between overdrafts and...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Exactly. That is the intention.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I thank the Minister of State for pointing out that provision. We can consider for what purposes the information is allowed to be used by a financial institution, and the Minister of State correctly listed the five purposes. All the subsections stand alone but we can consider subsection (b), "evaluating the risk of affording or extending credit to". That is a stand-alone measure. A...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate that.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I thank the Minister of State.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I feel strongly about this and I do not want to delay the committee but we have drafted legislation which provides that a regulated sector of the financial services industry is not subject to its main provision. This needs to be amended to capture the essence of this issue rather than providing for a review. The Minister of State made a valid point that this would be onerous on all other...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: They can but they do not. They have no history. Provident Personal Credit is not contacting the ICB to check me out. The company can do that if it wants but its interest is to provide me with a loan because its interest is profit and next week the company's agent will call to my house looking for the first instalment of the repayment. The legislation is about forcing them to check.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Then they are breaking the law.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: When this Bill is enacted, if I apply for a loan in excess of €2,000 and the financial institution does not consult the credit register, it will be in breach of the legislation.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The figure of €500 does not apply just for money lenders but for all financial institutions.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Where a loan has been secured, it must be reported, but if I go to a moneylender to apply for a loan of €600, the moneylender is not obligated to check my credit history on the register.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: This legislation will force people to check the register. This is about compliance and making them do so. It is wrong to tar everybody with the same brush, as there is a role in society for moneylenders. However, I have major issues with the APR they charge and the behaviour of some moneylenders which I have reported to the Central Bank. If one does not have to check the register in...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The Minister of State says that in good faith, but I do not accept it. None of my comments is meant to tar the entire industry with the same brush, but there are reports on legal moneylenders who go around collecting their money with the Argos catalogue in hand, particularly around this time coming up to Christmas when they offer other loans or their loans are being exhausted. They are not...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: It is illegal for a moneylender to provide two loans for an individual until the loan has been cleared.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: There is a way around it. We have had situations where because of regulations and restrictions in credit unions people have moved towards moneylenders. We must ensure this legislation applies to moneylenders, as it does to any other regulated financial institution. It is very hard to dispute that the €2,000 limit above which lenders must check the credit worthiness of borrowers...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: My amendment states the bank may provide for an independent adjudication of disputes between a credit information subject and a credit information provider as to the content of the register. I am not sure whether we have a right to provide one company with a route to independent adjudication and not another. I will return to this on Report Stage.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The reason I tabled this amendment is because moneylenders are exempt from this Bill because on average they tend to provide loans of less than €500. Therefore, there will be no requirement on moneylenders to access the credit register. That is what the amendment is about. It is about trying to compel moneylenders to use the register and remove any excuse they have. We all know...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Credit Reporting Bill 2012: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Will anybody with information held on the register be able to apply to the Data Protection Commissioner in the case of a dispute?