Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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42. To ask the Minister for Finance there is any reason under the single euro payments area that a consumer's direct debit with a company would have been executed ten days earlier than before SEPA. [5934/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I have been informed by the Central Bank of Ireland that while it is difficult to answer this question definitively without more specific information, there is nothing in the SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) scheme rules which should lead to a consumer being unexpectedly debited on an earlier value date by any direct debit originator.

However, the SDD scheme rules differ from those of the Irish direct debit scheme that it replaces; one area in which there is significant change is that of the timing of the submission to its bank by an originator of direct debit payment files for processing. The SDD scheme requires files to be submitted 6 days in advance of the date that the payment is due for first presentation and 3 days in advance for subsequent direct debit transactions. The Irish direct debit scheme required 2 days notice both for first and subsequent presentations.

It was incumbent on direct debit originators to implement internal process adjustments to cater for these changes in submission timelines. In the event that an originator decided to change the timing of their internal payments collection processes then, under the rules of both the SDD scheme and of its Irish predecessor, the originator would have been obliged to inform the debtor of any change to the amount or collection date of the debit 14 days in advance, though this period can be shorter by agreement between the parties.