Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was happy to be in the Chair when I was questioning the representatives of some of the bodies that appeared before the committee on Tuesday. They were agitated about the cost of the new regulatory environment under which they believe they are operating vis-à-visa previous environment. I tried to tease out with them if they consider it to constitute excessive regulation. I did not get an answer from them that it was excessive but they said it was very costly and burdensome. Does the Department take the view that this level of regulation is appropriate, albeit costly, or is it excessive? We talked about tiered regulation and that it might come in at some point in time and, obviously, ReBo, the Credit Union Restructuring Board, has engaged in considerable consultation on this but there will not be much consultation on it as that board is being wound down by the end of this month. Can anything be done particularly for the smaller credit unions to make the regulation less costly for them to do what they have to do, as opposed to not doing what they are required to do? Some credit unions have breached the regulations. We asked the representatives of the Irish League of Credit Unions about that on Tuesday and they said they do not condone any breach of the regulations. Mr. Carville might outline some examples of where there were breaches of regulations and where the Department would take a view that there is a problem. Obviously, it is a matter for the regulator as well but nobody wants a credit union to go wallop and leave its members exposed.