Yesterday, I launched Sinn Féin's proposals on dealing with household debt. Ahead of that, I reread some of the life stories shared with me as part of our campaign to highlight the issue of household debt. In one case, a person said the children were suffering. That person cannot sleep and the children are not let out to play for fear someone will come to knock on the door about a debt. Another person states those in the household are on the State pension and their electricity and fuel consumption increased due to illness and being at home all of the time. This person said they were better off dead than facing another winter in lockdown. They cannot get loans from banks and are reliant on moneylenders who charge ridiculous rates. These are two examples of the more than 300 people who shared their stories with me.

In 2018, a Sinn Féin Bill passed Second Stage in the House to cap the interest rates charged by moneylenders, some of whom charge up to 288% interest.

They are lending to families who are living below the poverty line, families who are forced to choose between food and fuel or meeting their payments.

I am asking the Taoiseach, as we face into what will be the toughest Christmas for so many families, to listen to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and to lone-parent organisations such as SPARK and One Family, which are at the coal face, calling for the Government to take action on growing household debts. Will he consider these proposals? Will he ensure this legislation to cap interest rates for moneylenders is progressed very quickly in the new year?

The key point, where families are in these situations, is that we provide services so they do not have to go to moneylenders, and provide alternative mechanisms such as MABS, utilising credit unions and our social protection services to eliminate the necessity at all to be going to moneylenders. We do this also through some of the initiatives that were brought in in the recent budget, through social protection in respect of school meals, for example, enhancing supports for lone parents, particularly in support of their children, and in terms of child dependant allowances. Very targeted measures were taken in the budget with a view to supporting the families most in need. In my view, all State institutions and agencies, and the mechanisms at their disposal, should be used to eliminate this need. We have the firepower to do that, as a State.