Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I concur with Deputy McGrath about people going up for re-election. There are two aspects to this. For directors, a new rule is coming in whereby they can only serve a maximum of nine years in a 15-year period. Based on the circumstances of the credit union and to achieve continuity, that could be extended to 12 years over the 15-year period. They would still need to be re-elected every three years. This brings us back to the problem of smaller credit unions not meeting the requirements for board membership and experience.

Directors of a credit union cannot serve more than three consecutive years in a principal post such as chairman or secretary. The context is that there could be a new board with new requirements. After the three-year period they will all have to go up for re-election. For the sake of continuity it would make sense to extend that from three to four years. That is the purpose of amendment No. 39, which would apply to section 15(14) to (16). This would retain the requirement for directors to be re-elected but it would allow people to have an extra three years in the 15-year period. The principal posts of chairman and secretary would then enjoy continuity until a new board of directors was elected.