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

We want the credit union representatives to give us a report on where they believe all of this is at - not from the Department of Finance, not from the Central Bank, but from the credit union representatives. They should tell us where they are at, what they want and who is holding it up, and be truthful.

If they do not, we will be here next year and they may lose their audience in that time. Like Senators Conway-Walsh and O'Donnell, we want to help but all I see here are various obstacles and reports. I am not one for that. I believe that if a business has to make a decision overnight and someone is holding up that decision process, the business should tell us who it is so we can ask that person. While Ms Byrne was part of the witnesses' group, she is not here today because of the issue of the independence of the Central Bank. I accept that it is independent, but if a person is part of a group, he or she is part of a group. I intend, with the approval of members, to have a further engagement with the Central Bank on this issue. I would like to have that comprehensive document before the members in order that we can clearly understand it. Senator Kieran O'Donnell asked a question about public banking. The credit unions are the nearest thing to public banking that I can see but they are not quite there. There seems to be an intention to stall that process. Maybe it is to protect the banks or maybe there is a vested interest somewhere along the line. Why can other countries do it if we cannot, when we have a perfect model here to do it? The question of why was asked. The answer is contained in the witnesses' report. It states how the Government would “thoroughly investigate the German Sparkassen model for the development of local public banks that operate within well-defined regions". The report also states "The results of the investigation into local public banking indicate that, given the current demand for and supply of credit, there is not a compelling business case for the State to establish a new local public banking system". It is clear that the State has no interest and that some other players will have to step up to the plate here. Everyone is looking to the credit unions, the post office and so on. In light of the Government saying that it has no interest in it, will the witnesses tell the committee where they will now go with this model of banking? It seems that for every step they take, there is an obstacle in their way to prevent them from becoming anything like a public banking system.