Mr. Des Gunning:

The question of impact is interesting because it is in the interest of every credit union to go into its AGM in the period from October to December when AGMs are held and create for itself a section 44 fund and to have that fund available on the balance sheet of the credit union until such time as an appropriate demand arises on it, which could be for some piece of infrastructure for which there is matching funds available from the local authority, the European Union or wherever where matching funds would be a significant contribution in a time when matching funds are more difficult to get than they were 20 years ago. A material example that occurs to me is that I live in a city area and we do not have any market facilities in the area where I live. There is no public open market and to have one one would need a hard stand, water risers for market traders to have access to water, and power points. If the credit unions were on board with a section 44 fund under the community development heading, with local authority backing one could develop designated stand space, hard stand it and, with some cash from a credit union section 44 fund, develop a market stand which would be a commercial outlet for traders and also a civic space and a place of recourse. That is an example of how a section 44 fund could be turned into something material. The expenditure side would be immaterial. It is the other end of the spectrum from the idea of shipping a cartload of money to an international finance fund management firm in Frankfurt or wherever. Section 44 money is to spend in the locality on items that people can touch, smell or hear.

The impact of that is to bring more people into a friendly association with the credit union because while I celebrate all the wonderful credit union buildings throughout the country, and I saw them all going up, they are a little intimidating at the same time. Most credit unions are supportive of organisations like the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and that is catching on the tail of things, so to speak, but a fund that is developmental and oriented towards the infrastructure will bring more people into a friendly association with a credit union and help address the sort of generational issue touched upon in an earlier submission.