John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms O’Connor. Before we start, at the end of the previous session we asked the representatives of the Central Bank about the obstacles in the way of the credit unions almost fulfilling the role of a community bank. They said that they had loaned €90 million and they could loan €900 million with business mortgages and so on. What is the obstacle? If the Central Bank tells us that there are no obstacles to the credit unions doing that, will Ms O'Connor outline what the obstacles are? Deputy Pearse Doherty also raised this question with the Central Bank representatives. With €7 billion in the bank, as it were, why can the credit unions not let that money find its way into the economy, housing, business, loans and so on?