Licensed moneylenders are currently permitted to charge anything up to 188% of interest, excluding collection charges. When collection charges are included the rates of interest increase to 287% per annum. There are an estimated 330,000 customers of these moneylenders and approximately €153 million on loan to them in Ireland. This represents around 2% of the overall market. Those statistics come from the Social Finance Foundation, which carried out a report and sought a cap on the interest rate for moneylenders. Today, I will move a Bill to introduce a cap on these extortionate charges, and next week we will use our Private Members' time to bring the Bill to Second Stage. Given the remarks of the Taoiseach last week, is Fine Gael disposed to introducing a cap on moneylenders to ensure this is the last Christmas that hundreds of thousands of people will be ripped off by these extortionate rates?

I share the Deputy's concern that some people are effectively being ripped off with extraordinarily high interest repayment rates to access money. We have to make sure that people are protected in that context. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, is looking at this issue and I am sure he will respond to the Deputy's Bill accordingly. I cannot commit him to a course of action, but we are certainly taking this issue seriously. It is under review in the Department of Finance.