Mr. Sean Hosford:

The simple answer is, as the three of us have stated, tiered regulation. We should regulate credit unions according to their scale and the complexity of their business. The original proposal which the Central Bank asserts was rejected in CP76 was related to scale, that is, over or under a figure of €100 million. In their submissions on CP76 the three organisations made it clear that they were in favour of tiered regulation but not in the manner - purely on scale - the Central Bank wanted to do it. There are credit unions with a figure of €10 million or €15 million that are well capable of doing the same business in a safe manner as some of the larger credit unions, whereas there are credit unions with a figure of €50 million that may not be able to do this. Basing tiered regulation on nature, scale and complexity was the commission's recommendation. Last night the Minister of State, Deputy Simon Harris, stated the commission's recommendations were clear Government policy. We are asking for nothing more than what was contained in these recommendations.