Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We in the Department and I, as a constituency Deputy, are in constant contact with the credit union sector, as is the Department of Finance, in regard to the role of credit unions and how that will evolve in the context of the SME sector. We have asked the credit unions to bring forward proposals in that regard. As far as I understand, there has been no significant detail from the credit unions regarding how they intend to operate in that sector in the future. The Government and the Oireachtas should be always mindful of the role credit unions and other alternative financiers and finance organisations can play in supporting the SME sector.

Clearly there is a difference of opinion between us and the Deputy in regard to how we accommodate the role of the credit unions, crowd funders and others, but the definition of "finance providers" in this legislation is sufficiently wide to include crowd funders and credit unions. However, what we do not want to do is to arrive at a position where we list off in an exhaustive way the type of funding arrangements and providers that would or could be considered in the context of any scheme to the point where we might end up excluding some. This is a rapidly evolving area, nationally and internationally, so the definition is left open enough to allow for the development of crowd funding and how it will be defined in the future. I am satisfied we have sufficient flexibility here to allow us to achieve that and to do the things Deputies Tóibín and Calleary want to see happen.