asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will accept the transfer of the operation of the Moneylenders Acts to his Department from the Department of Justice and the way in which his prospective consumer credit legislation will be applied in the case of moneylenders.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Moneylenders Acts.
7.
The answer to the first part of the question is no.
The legislation which needs to be introduced to give effect to the EC Directive on Consumer Credit will impose requirements on all providers of such credit, including moneylenders. Decisions have not yet been made on which options in the directive will be adopted and in what manner its various provisions will be applied. My Department are in consultation with interested parties on these questions at present and I would not wish to anticipate their outcome at this stage.
Is it not the case that under the consumer legislation the Minister is proposing to bring in, he will be creating criminal offences for moneylenders which are not offences under the Moneylenders Acts as now operated by the Department of Justice? What I am asking is only recognising the de facto situation. Would the Department of Justice not feel that the Minister's Department are better equipped to deal with moneylenders legislation?
The Deputy concerned made his views very forcibly known to the previous Minister for Industry and Commerce on 15 January and the previous Minister for Industry and Commerce replied on 21 January that he did not accept the views expressed in that submission and repeated here today.
Surely the Minister realises for a start that the previous Minister was at the very end of his period in office and it would have been unfair to the Minister to have made the decision on an implication of this nature. Will he not agree that he is now responsible and it is up to him to decide on the merits of this case which, as he said, I have argued cogently for him?
Apparently the Deputy is not aware that the then Minister decided against his Department, the Department of Industry and Commerce, taking that responsibility for the Moneylending Acts, on 21 January 1987. However, I will take on board the point raised in relation to a review of the whole situation. I am aware of the possibility of new crimes being created, but it is too complex for me to have decided within a matter of days how it is proceeding. The Deputy has made his case and I am quite certain that the Minister in his Government took all his submissions into consideration. That was his decision. I will be looking at this and if I have a different view I will have no hesitation in changing that decision.
I will allow one final supplementary on this.
Would the Minister not agree that there was a unanimous recommendation from the Seanad last year for a review of the legislation referred to in the question and for the publication of minimum conditions for the giving of credit including the recognised and respectable — so-called — credit system?
I did not get the point of the question.
A recommendation agreed by all parties unanimously in the other House suggested that the legislation was defective. My question is: does the Minister intend to respond to that?
I informed the Deputy and the House that the Department of Justice had extensive experience in dealing with the problems of enforcement of the criminal law and of assessing the suitability of applicants for moneylending licences which the Garda and the courts deal with. In reply to the Deputy, certainly I will take the matter on board and have consultations with the Minister for Justice and get his sensible response when he has had time to consider the matter.