Summary: Episode one – with real, live contributors is here!<br> I’m going to try to list all the sources that I reference in the show on the web page of each show, more or less in order.<br> <a href="http://meetings.fingal.ie/mgAi.aspx?ID=8978" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">This is the record of the meeting of Fingal County Council</a> where almost every councillor present – including all Labour Party councillors present – voted against allowing people to have a referendum on having a directly-elected mayor for Dublin. They formulated the vote as supporting a referendum at a later time, which they were aware was not provided for in the legislation, and would mean that no vote could be held.<br> In the section on Credit Unions, I talk about an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, where the ex-Daily Show correspondent exposes the payday loans ‘industry’. <a title="You can see them all on YouTube" href="https://www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight/videos" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Every episode of that show is fantastic</a>, I’d highly recommend it.<br> I know it’s unbelievable, but here are UK-based payday loan companies offering loans with <a title="Wizzcash" href="https://www.wizzcash.com/payday-loans/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">interest rates of 993%</a> and <a title="Wonga" href="https://www.wizzcash.com/payday-loans/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">1,509% APR</a>. Watch the Last Week Tonight episode to see how these companies are, unsurprisingly, wildly profitable and base their whole business model around around trapping people in cyclical borrowing.<br> <br> <a href="http://www.independent.ie/business/personal-finance/property-mortgages/credit-unions-consider-move-into-mortgage-market-30973432.html" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">This is the Sunday Independent article</a> that reports credit unions planning to offer €100m in loans to parents’ of house-buyers to circumvent the Central Bank’s requirements to save up a deposit before buying a house. I’m not a lawyer, but it strikes me a home-buyer reporting the proceeds of such a loan as being their own savings on a mortgaged application is obtaining money by deception, a criminal offence.<br>
