Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is taking a reasonable approach to many of the issues raised and the proposed amendments. Having listened to his views on the matter, I have still not fully arrived at a view on it. I did not hear him express his view on the principle of rotation.

An issue arises with regard to the smaller credit unions, and suggestions for addressing the problem have been made by Deputies Pearse Doherty and Michael McGrath. The proposal to impose limits on periods of service has provoked a major reaction from the credit unions. The Irish League of Credit Unions, the representative body of credit unions, has acknowledged that it did not expect this response from member credit unions when it participated in discussions of the issue at the Commission on Credit Unions. The publication of the draft legislation provoked a major reaction, which may have been partly because the credit unions believed the proposal undermined the democratic principle that members should make decisions of this nature. Why should these limits apply to credit unions when they do not apply to banks? Why is it necessary to make a special provision and apply term limits which restrict the right of members to make decisions about who they want on boards and as principal officers? I apologise to the Minister if he has answered my questions. If so, I do not expect a lengthy response.