Mr. Kevin Johnson:

Senator Humphreys mentioned that only 32% of the deposits held by his credit union are available for lending. To be clear on that, all savings are available for lending. It is just that, unfortunately, only 27% is out on loans so there is significant capacity to lend more. As Mr. Farrell said, there is a huge appetite across credit unions to get more involved in broadening the offering, namely, building on the solid base of the personal consumer lending and prudently moving into home loans and more of the small business loans.

It was very interesting to hear Mr. Felzen's description of a Sparkasse. To be honest, if the name was removed, he could have been describing the credit union movement here in Ireland. He talked about having an economic role in preventing credit crunches as well as a social role. We should remember that throughout the domestic and global crisis we experienced, credit unions never stopped lending. Their doors were always open. We did not see the failure we witnessed in other parts of the financial services sector. As the committee members know, credit unions are at the heart of their communities, and there is definitely an appetite to do more. It is probably fair to say that only a small number currently have the expertise to immediately grow in this way. This is why we feel we could start to develop those skills collaboratively, and move further into that area.