Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have had a fairly good debate on this and have had two Private Members' motions also. We are down in the bowels of this place and even though we might think we are on TV, nobody is watching. It is the nature of these committee hearings. In the Dáil Chamber the tone is more "Credit unions, good; Government, bad," and there is nothing in between.

There are issues here. A report was written by the commission with 75% of the recommendations. Everybody was represented on that commission. What has gone wrong? Things are better. The credit unions' financial position is better and there is less concern. What is the story? Is it a very conservative regulator who is opposed to taking on too much of a workload in dealing with tiered regulation through the credit union system? Is there a fear that if something goes wrong or is missed there will be a blot in the copybook? Is the conservative approach being chosen of imposing restrictive regulations and treating them all as bad boys? We have passed a lot of the legislation here in conjunction with the credit unions and with the recommendations of the commission. We have all been playing ball together, so what has suddenly gone wrong that we find ourselves at odds?