Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I support the credit union concept and am a member of a credit union myself. Certainly, it is preferable to borrowing from banks. While I support the league's right to put its proposal, it is not a total no-brainer. There are issues around it. The problem in housing overall is not really finding funding because the Government has access to funds should it choose to use them. Last week, the Government chose to pay down debt from the sale of AIB rather than to use the money for housing. The rate the league is talking about is 2.5% and I have seen 3% or 4% on previous occasions. That is still higher than using those funds or the funds in the Irish Strategic Investment Fund. NAMA, of course, has cash reserves of €3 billion. The key issue I have is not so much with credit unions but with all of these concepts. It is the desperate search to find a special purpose vehicle which does not breach EU rules. We have to stop trying to avoid impinging on EU rules, otherwise we will not resolve this emergency. The scale of what the credit unions can provide bears no comparison to what local authorities could provide, given their lands and expertise, if they were funded. That is the essential problem. I see the credit union proposal as a possible supplement but it is no replacement for the tried and tested method of providing housing on a faster, cheaper and larger scale, which is what we need.

The other issue I have has been discussed at the committee before, namely, the proliferation of approved housing bodies. There are problems with them from the point of view of tenant representation, as they tend to provide much less support than one has from a local authority where councillors can step in to assist people who are having rent or other issues. We have all had stories about trying to make contact with them. Even in respect of pyrite, there is an approved housing body we cannot get to communicate with us in the way we can with a local authority.

Is there an international or other model under which the league can foresee credit union funds being lent? Is there a risk to credit union members if credit unions get involved in the housing market? How can the league mitigate that risk? The last thing we need is credit unions gambling the money of those who rely on them and their ethos of co-operation.