Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Senators who spoke on the Bill for their constructive and helpful contributions to the debate. I also welcome the Senators' expression of support for the contents of the Bill. As I mentioned earlier, the Bill deals with an issue of considerable importance for consumer welfare and businesses that provide goods or services to consumers. It is clear that consumers deserve greater protection when they buy gift vouchers.

Following our debate it is clear there is wide support for introducing a longer expiry date on all gift vouchers. Equally, it is important that consumers are protected against unfair and anti-consumer practices such as the requirement to fully use the value of a voucher in one transaction and the restrictions put in place by certain businesses with regard to the name of the gift card recipient.

A number of issues were raised which I will address. With regard to the issue referred to by Senator Davitt on electronic money and payment services regulations, the legal advice received from the Office of the Attorney General concluded the provision for a five-year minimum term for gift vouchers did not give rise to any incompatibility with the electronic money regulations in view of the fact electronic money instruments remain redeemable for as long as funds are held in the instrument. This type of voucher is, effectively, subject to no expiry date. The legal advice stated that the provision in the original scheme of the Bill empowering the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation to make regulations fixing certain gift voucher fees raised issues regarding its relation to the regulatory regime for electronic money instruments. The matters at issue are being reviewed in consultation with the Department of Finance and the Central Bank. The provision on the regulation of fees does not form part of the Bill. The outcome of the legal review will determine whether it is possible to reintroduce such a provision on Committee or Report Stages. At the end of the day, I want to protect consumers. It has been brought to my attention on many occasions that when people receive a gift card, for example one worth €100, they are delighted but sometimes do not use it. They hold on to it to buy a particular item they are waiting for and then discover after 12 months it is worth less than they thought it was. The value reduces every month after that. Some people were not aware of that and it has caused concern.

Senator Reilly raised the issue of who benefits from the funds. He talked about his friend who did not cash a gift voucher. If one does not cash a gift voucher, it goes back to the shop. I encourage people to cash their gift vouchers and to use them as quickly as possible because we have found examples of businesses going out of business and people not being able to cash vouchers. That happens too. If one does not cash it and the expiry date arrives, the business does not have to cash it after a year or 24 months. I am extending that to five years, which I think is a reasonable time to allow people to cash their gift vouchers.

Senator Mac Lochlainn raised the issue of experience vouchers. With so-called experience vouchers, purchasers buy a voucher to participate in a named experience, for example a voucher to take part in a hot air balloon ride. Operators have claimed the introduction of the proposed expiry date provision could see them bear higher costs for the provision of the service in the future than the original cost of a voucher purchased five years earlier. They said it could result in excess demand over potential supply of the experience if many voucher-holders held onto their vouchers for almost the entire five-year period, as the cost will have gone up. While noting the concerns expressed, I do not believe the scenario outlined will emerge in the vast majority of cases and thus I do not believe that an exception is required for these situations. I believe the retailer can get over that issue by putting the value of the experience on the voucher. That should cover it.

The Senator mentioned buying a voucher in Spain. I cannot answer that question because I do not know if it can be spent in this country. We will check it out and find out what the situation is for consumers.

To return to the point made by Senator Reilly, sometimes there are town vouchers where people can go into their town-----