Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the landmark decision taken by the Scottish Parliament yesterday to pass legislation permitting same-sex marriage.

I raise a case that arose yesterday in the Dublin Circuit Family Law Court involving a mother of three children who made an application to the father of one of her children for an increase in her maintenance payment on the basis that she had obtained two loans in the previous year from a moneylender, including one of €1,500 to cover the costs of Christmas. In a 12 month period, the woman was due to pay more than €800 in interest on this loan. The judge asked her what was the logic of a person with her means borrowing €1,500, to which she replied that she either borrowed the money or her children would have gone without. Every one of us consistently and regularly encounters people who are in similar circumstances. I am meeting people who are in rent arrears and are borrowing from moneylenders to ensure they are not evicted from their homes.

I was shocked to learn from a recent Central Bank report on licensed moneylenders that it is perfectly legitimate to charge interest rates of 300%. The justification made for this practice was the high risk attached to this type of debt, despite evidence showing that the default rate on this type of debt is very low. The reason for the low risk is partly that these debts are repeatedly rolled over, loan after loan, in what effectively amounts to a life sentence to moneylenders. People also borrow from unlicensed moneylenders and many have been subjected to violence and various threats. I ask for a debate on the issue of access to credit for people on low incomes or social welfare. The debate should include a discussion on the remit of the credit union movement, especially in respect of people on low incomes. A number of proposals have been made on this issue by the Opposition, including by my party when we were in opposition. I would like the debate to consider all such proposals, as some of them had exceptional merit.