Ms Anne Marie McKiernan:

I will start by saying that we share the same vision for the credit union sector. We want to see a thriving credit union sector. It provides choice and competition across the financial system and it also serves community interests. We are very much aiming for the same end but we have different responsibilities along the way. What can we do to help the sector? We are already doing a couple of things. We are engaging consistently with the sector bodies around the proposals they are bringing forward to address exactly some of the issues raised by Deputy O'Donnell, namely, how it can provide services to credit unions which, effectively, give them the economies of scale they will not get themselves.