asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether he will by regulation or otherwise provide that hire-purchase contracts with married women shall be invalid unless guaranteed by the husband of the married woman, or by an independent solvent surety.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Hire-Purchase Contracts.
21.
I have no evidence to suggest that such a restriction on the freedom of contract of married women is necessary.
Is the Minister aware that there exists in urban areas a practice of high-power salesmen going from door to door in connection with hire-purchase selling which results in contracts being improvidently signed with the consequence that the husband is constrained either to continue paying the instalments or possibly face the prospect of criminal charges being brought against his wife as a result of the commodity purchased having been sold before the hire-purchase contract was discharged? Will he not consider making regulations, which may affect only a minority of cases but which would, in fact, operate to put an end to a very grave abuse which is being operated by an unscrupulous minority of hire-purchase operators?
I am aware that there are hire-purchase canvassers operating in the suburbs of all our cities. The position was the same when this Act was passed two years ago. I was not convinced by the arguments put forward then, nor am I convinced by anything which has happened since, that such a provision was necessary. In fact, on the contrary, what has happened since is that the report of the Moloney Committee on consumer protection in Britain proves that my view was correct. It says:
We are not prepared to endorse the view implicit in the idea that married women are less sensible and more gullible than their husbands.
That is my view also.
Is the Minister aware that the wisdom appropriate to the urban populations of Great Britain does not necessarily operate here? Because the Moloney Commission so advises the British Government, is that any reason why we should facilitate the operations of a very small minority of chancers who are victimising respectable people and whom it is impossible to control unless some steps are taken merely to give their intended victims a chance of reflection? What on earth objection can there be to asking a married woman entering into a hire-purchase contract either to have the contract signed by her husband or some independent security, so that if an attempt is subsequently made to victimise her, the hire-purchase firm must first sue the guarantor and not threaten the woman if the object has been sold?
I believe that Irish married women and Irish housewives are less sensitive to these exhortations than the British housewives and, therefore, all the more do I believe that the Moloney Commission are right and that my decision was right when the Act was passed. The position has not changed since the Act was passed.
The abuse exists and it should be stopped.