asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will make an order under the Hire Purchase Acts prohibiting hire-purchase companies from including a clause in hire-purchase agreements whereby the company and the vendor of the goods covered by the agreement deny that the goods are sold subject to any warranty that the goods are in good condition and usable for the purpose for which they were designed, and compelling purchasers to accept such an unfair clause.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Hire Purchase Agreements.
16.
Mr. Ryan
I would refer the Deputy to Section 9 of the Hire Purchase Act, 1946, which provides that in every hire-purchase transaction there is an implied condition that goods (other than second-hand goods), which are the subject of a hire purchase agreement, shall be of merchantable quality, and this warranty is implied notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary.
The law provides that where the hirer expressly or by implication makes known the particular purpose for which goods are required, there is an implied condition that the goods shall be reasonably fit for such purpose. The owner is not entitled to rely on any provision in the agreement excluding or modifying this condition unless he proves that before the agreement was made the provision was brought to the notice of the hirer and its effect made clear to him.
There is no information available to me which would indicate that any alteration in the law, as it stands, is necessary.
Before we finish that, I should like to remind the Minister again that a good deal of these H.P. goods are junk.
That is not a question.
They are worn out before they are even paid for.