Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses, particularly Sean, who happens to look after my loan. What has gone on in the Naas Credit Union, particularly during the past two or three years, has been nothing but outstanding. I have attended a number of AGMs and I am delighted to see him here today. I have a couple of questions. What happened during the banking crisis, and to a certain extent the credit union crisis, was the close linkages made between boards, management and the people who were borrowing money. People who received money should never have done so. A lot of the boards are made up of local people. Do we need to make stronger regulations in regard to the role of boards in credit unions?

I love the idea that the credit unions are linking in with the LEOs and using their expertise. LEOs have a limited fund; that is the problem with a lot of them. A lot of good ideas come from entrepreneurs who go to LEOs. Instead of five or six credit unions all coming to use the expertise of LEOs, could it perhaps be done on a county basis, so that LEOs could direct their services to particular credit unions?

Could the Government guarantee be a more partial guarantee, rather than a full guarantee, so that some risk was being taken by the credit union as well? That might make it more likely that whoever one was lending money to would repay it.

Another matter to have been alluded to, and it probably came up in the situation which arose in my area, was amalgamation of credit unions. This is more to do with what John was talking about earlier, namely, expertise. It is not possible for each credit union to have all the expertise. Perhaps the credit union movement could work together to create another level, whether on a county or a regional basis, where the expertise could be pooled. For example, if someone were to come to a manager such as Sean with a good-quality idea, he might not have the expertise to assess it properly, but there might be another level up. It might not be the LEOs that had the expertise, but it would be at the next level up. I know that people might say that it was becoming more like a bank. What has happened in the banks is that the local level does not have the same influence in the decision-making process, but here the local credit union could have a stronger influence but also get expertise from a level above that, rather than each credit union having to go out and source their own expertise.

Some of the ideas being put forward are excellent. The question is how we progress them further. I hate seeing people coming to this committee and it becoming more of a talking shop than something that facilitates. I believe that the credit unions have some €8 billion available. That is a huge sum of money. Witnesses have quite rightly talked today of the ECB reducing deposit rates below 0% on overnight borrowing. Some of them have become involved in Davy's. That is highly risky. If it can be managed properly, there is potential for credit unions to lend to viable - that is the key word - or potentially viable SMEs, but I say again that the expertise needs to be there.