Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In response to Deputy Peadar Tóibín's amendment, in extending the scope of the legislation and introducing additional flexibility, there will be scope to examine how a range of finance providers can operate under the Bill. I cannot accede to the amendment which relates specifically to crowd funding and credit unions. As far as the Government is concerned, these provisions are not exhaustive and we do not believe there is a need in primary legislation to explicitly refer to finance providers or the sectors in which they operate. The scope of the scheme is broad enough to allow these two operations to be accommodated in what we are trying to achieve. Fundamentally, this is about ensuring we will have alternative sources of finance for SMEs, in particular. The Bill is sufficiently broad to accommodate what Deputies Peadar Tóibín and Dara Calleary wish to achieve.