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The Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys today announced that the Government has approved the General Scheme of the Unfair Contract Terms (Gift Vouchers) Bill 2018, which will introduce a minimum expiry date of five years for gift vouchers.

Minister Humphreys said:

“I am delighted that Government has today approved the drafting of this Bill, which I believe can make a real difference to consumers. At the moment, Ireland doesn’t have clear rules on the expiry dates of gift vouchers, which time and time again results in needless confusion and frustration. In some cases, individual vouchers aren’t even clear about their own cut-off point.

“Research undertaken by the National Consumer Agency in 2013 found that almost half of those surveyed had let a gift voucher expire at some point without using it. It is extremely frustrating if a person, or somebody close to them, has paid in cash for a voucher only to be told it is no longer valid a relatively short time afterwards. While many retailers do honour vouchers in these instances, others do not. This simply isn’t fair and needs to change.”

The Minister continued:

“I know the issues of fees is a bone of contention to consumers. I am aware of cases where fees of as much as €3.00 per month apply to gift vouchers after 12 months. This means that a voucher for €25 can rendered completely worthless after 20 months. The Bill will deal with fees as well as expiry dates.”

The Minister concluded:

“Countless gift vouchers are lost or go out of date every year – let’s face it; we’ve all been there. This is a relatively straightforward Bill and it’s an issue that affects us all, so I’m hopeful that I can secure cross-party support in the Oireachtas to ensure this legislation is enacted by the end of the year.”