Mr. Brian Corr:

On local public banking, the report from the Department of Finance came out last year. One of the outcomes of that was a recommendation that there be an independent evaluation of local public banking. My understanding is that the procurement process for the independent evaluator is complete and will be announced in the next few weeks. The terms of reference for that independent evaluation have been agreed. Credit unions are specifically referenced as one of the potential delivery mechanisms for local public banking. It is hoped the successful roll-out of debit cards and current accounts to a good proportion of credit unions this year, the extension of the mortgage lending limits and some further work credit unions are doing behind the scenes on SME lending will get us a fair bit of the way towards where we consider the services of public banking are provided by the credit unions.