3.—(1) F19[Subject to this Act,] this Act shall apply to all credit agreements, hire-purchase agreements and consumer-hire agreements to which a consumer is a party.

(2) This Act shall not apply to the following, that is to say—

(a) a credit agreement in relation to credit granted or intended to be granted by—

(i) a society which is registered as a credit union under the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts, 1893 to 1978, by virtue of the Credit Union Act, 1966,

(ii) any registered society within the meaning of the Friendly Societies Acts, 1896 to 1977,

F20[except where the interest of the credit union or registered society in all or any part of the credit concerned has been directly or indirectly assigned or otherwise disposed of to any person that is not a credit union or registered society,]

F21[(aa) any transaction or proposed transaction conducted in the course of relevant trading operations within the meaning of section 39A (inserted by section 17 of the Finance Act, 1981) of the Finance Act, 1980, or within the meaning of section 39B (inserted by section 30 of the Finance Act, 1987) of the Finance Act, 1980.]

(b) a credit agreement in the form of an authentic act signed before a notary public or a judge,

F22[(c) any transaction entered into by a pawnbroker in respect of a pledge on which a loan or advance is made or to be made, or anything done with a view to such a transaction being entered into,]

(d) an agreement for the provision on a continuing basis of a service or a utility where the consumer has the right to pay for it, by means of instalments or deferred payments,

F23[(e) credit granted or made available without payment of interest or any other charge, other than where such credit is granted or made available by a person who has invited, by way of advertisement, consumers to avail of such credit,]

F24[(ea) payments of ancillary State support advanced by the Health Service Executive under the Nursing Homes Support Scheme Act 2009,]

(f) a credit agreement other than a credit agreement operated by means of a credit card under which no interest is charged provided the consumer agrees to repay the credit in a single payment, or

(g) a credit agreement between an employer and an employee made on terms which are more favourable to the employee than terms offered generally to the public in the normal course of business.

(3) F22[(a) The provisions of this Act may be applied to housing loans advanced by a local authority only by regulations made by the Minister for Finance after consultation with the Minister for the Environment and Local Government. Different provisions may be applied at different times to different classes of loans, by reference to such matters as that Minister considers appropriate.]

(b) A loan, not secured by mortgage, made by a local authority for the purposes of carrying out improvement works (within the meaning of section 1 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1979) to a house shall be regarded as a housing loan (within the meaning of this Act) for the purposes of this Act.