Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The bike-to-work scheme has been a major success and a number of people have availed of it, allowing them to invest in a bicycle and use it to get to work. We know that cycling is, in many ways, a far superior way of getting around. It can be faster and it does not cause pollution. There are health benefits. However, the scheme operates by alleviating the tax burden for those in employment but people who are not working cannot benefit. This applies to people seeking work and those who are retired or cannot work, etc., but who may be able to cycle. Is now the time to have a debate on this and consider whether we should expand the scheme to include people not within the coterie of people at work and thus unable to benefit from the scheme through payments from wages, etc? We should expand the scheme to include as many people as possible.

I have been contacted by a constituent about a One4All voucher he received. The Consumer Protection Act 2007 was amended in 2019 to ensure that gift vouchers do not have expiry dates. There were cases when people did not use them in time, rendering such vouchers useless. In 2019, when that law was passed, we recognised it was important that vouchers would have a period of validity going beyond a year or two years. Sometimes it takes a long time for people to get around to using those vouchers. The reality is that for the people who buy them, they are as good as cash. Those who sell the vouchers have cash in hand in advance. The system is as advantageous for retailers as it is for those receiving the vouchers as gifts or who buy them for friends, etc.It was right and proper that we deal with the issue of time limits on these vouchers. However, it now appears that some voucher companies, including One4All, of which I have been made aware of, circumvent that system by applying a monthly charge after a certain date. The person who contacted me is elderly and was unable to use the voucher for the last 18 months or so. During this time, the period within which One4All starts to apply the monthly charge kicked in. From a certain date, a monthly charge is applied - I do not know the exact amount but I think it is €1.50 - which comes off the voucher and substantially reduces its value. It seems absolutely wrong to me that companies like that, for whatever the reason, can circumvent the consumer protection legislation that was passed in 2019. I wonder whether there is something we could do legislatively speaking to address that issue and close the gap in the amending legislation.