Mr. John Knox:

With regard to the issue of the engagement with the Departments, we had a very constructive engagement with the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government which has confirmed that our proposal slots into an existing model that it uses. We have debated the merits of the model it uses but in terms of funding the housing bodies and private finance, the Department has confirmed that our model ticks all the boxes and fits in with its proposal.

Deputy Wallace raised the issue of risky lending, which Mr. Farrell has already touched on. We do not see this as risky lending. We would not be making this proposal if we thought it was going to put credit union funds and, more importantly, credit union members' funds at risk. The ultimate counter-party to these loans is the State. The way the housing bodies repay these loans is via a rental income stream they receive which is underwritten by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. So, in terms of risky lending, we see the counter-party being the State as removing that risk.

In terms of the issue of barriers and the role of the Central Bank, its question centres on the risk and that is where the toing and froing with the Central Bank has been. In the first instance, we met with the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, to ensure that our proposal was accurate and fitted the policy. Once we had completed our interaction with the Department, we met with the Central Bank in January 2016. It is in the intervening months, as one would expect, that the Central Bank has stated its role as registrar of credit unions is to protect the savings of credit union members. It is focused very much on the risk. What we are trying to do is endeavour to allay any concerns it might have. Thankfully, as Mr. Farrell has outlined, the Departments have in recent meetings offered to try to meet with the Centra Bank to give it any further information on how this model would work and allay any fears or concerns it may have about risk which would finally enable it to make the regulatory changes so that we can progress this once and for all.