Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are in a situation in which the credit unions have assets of more than €17 billion. Those assets are of no use to anyone if they are just sitting there. They can be used in several ways as identified in all the reports, in particular for housing and microloan provision. These involve two major societal problems, the first being homelessness and the right to own a home and the second being the protection of citizens from scurrilous moneylenders who charge hundreds of percent in interest. The credit unions could play a major role there. We might look at the microloan situation for the moment as it could be good to do so for someone who does not have a good credit record, often through no personal fault.

Perhaps they got into trouble during the downturn or lost their jobs, but they do not have the credit record they would need to borrow from other financial institutions. They can borrow under the credit union system through connecting the repayments to their social welfare payments. Why are such a low number of credit unions operating this microcredit system? For instance, only two credit unions in Mayo are offering these loans. Will the representatives speak to that point? There was a reference in one of the reports to these loans being a loss leader. Will the representatives talk about the interest rates and about what would need to be done to make the scheme viable for all credit unions?