Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not seek to diminish the serious issues that arose in a small number of credit unions. Those had to be dealt with and more may emerge and will need to be dealt with in terms of the registrar's powers. All that I would ask of her, however, is that she would work in a spirit of co-operation with the sector which is seriously frustrated. I am sure Ms McKiernan monitored the proceedings on Tuesday and the hearing we had with its representatives. Many committed people are working in the credit union movement and many of them in a voluntary capacity. The issues that have emerged have been quite modest and dealt with and any further ones that emerge will need to be dealt with. However, we can contrast it with the issues that we had in our banking system, where the gross cost was €64 billion. The viability of credit unions is under serious threat. All I ask of Ms McKiernan is that she would work them in a spirit of co-operation, try to assist them, trust them and give them the opportunity to develop the business model. She can afford to take some risks, allow them to do things and enter new streams of activity.

I believe that the long-term lending area, which was discussed at length, is one area of potential. The credit unions also need to do more themselves. I would be the first person to say that, and I have said it to them publicly and privately, but there is a deep frustration there. As someone who is independent and looking at the overall figures, I am very concerned at the direction in which this is going. The witness may not want to call it as she sees it right now, but looking at those key metrics there are serious viability issues overall. We are witnessing the decline of a great national movement. I do not want that to happen on our watch and I do not think the registrar should want that either. She is in a pivotal position now to do something positive about it and to stop the trend that is very evident to us.