John Kelly (Labour)

I welcome in advance that the Minister for Finance will come to the House. I call for a wide-ranging debate on finance matters. It was brought to my attention at the weekend by a number of business people who negotiated the restructuring of their payments and were sent new contracts to sign. Two of them signed and returned the contract without reading it. One person read it, but in all three cases, it was noted that the bank had added an additional 1% increase to the repayments. That needs to be addressed.

It was also brought to my attention, and this is news to me, that once a person guarantees a loan, following its repayment the guarantee stays in place, because one is not guaranteeing the loan, but the person who has taken out the loan. One is guaranteeing the person for life. People do not realise this. Once one guarantees a loan and it is repaid, one should contact the bank and tell it that the guarantee is now null and void. Otherwise, should the person look for a loan in the future, even in 20 years time, the guarantee that was put in place 20 years earlier is still in place.

I wish to speak about the post office robberies. I empathise and sympathise with Senator D'Arcy to a large degree. More security needs to be put in place for rural post offices. My sister was a victim in County Roscommon, when she was robbed at gunpoint. Thankfully the Garda was in a position to act quickly and arrest people. There is an issue with people moving from other parts of the country to rural areas and all of a sudden there are local robberies with information being given to their friends in whatever part of the country they left. It is a matter that deserves debate.