Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Mangan to the committee. The Tánaiste has made an outstanding appointment. Ms Mangan comes with a seriously qualitative background, including the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the European Commission office, the Law Reform Commission, the National Council of Ageing and Older People, the human rights commission and the Referendum Commission. We are lucky that she happens to be available to bring all this energy and these qualifications to the job. I wish her the very best of luck. It is a wonderful appointment.

I also compliment the Citizens Information Board. Recently I had reason to look up the fair deal for a person and it was to the Citizens Information Board that I went for the accuracy, clear, informed and explanatory nature of its service. The information was also on the fair deal website, but the Citizens Information Board did such good work on the matter that it was able to answer all the questions in the back of my head that were not so obvious on that website. I have one question. Can Ms Mangan tell us why the credit unions are not supplying small loans and how that can be reversed?