Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would be very interested in the credit union issue as well, and I know Mr. Sibley talked to Deputy Tóibín about that. When the FSU was here, it stated that one concern it had was that if the branches close, and I appreciate we do not know and, hopefully, it will not be the case, we would lose local knowledge. As Mr. Sibley knows, if there is a banking branch, there is that local knowledge of the people, of the farmer and of the local business, so that is one issue that would be concerning. I thought it was quite an interesting point by the FSU and, in that sense, if that were to happen, I think a greater importance would be set on the credit union sector. Mr. Sibley stated that he recognised the importance of the credit union sector. Specifically, we need to recognise the help it can provide people in terms of increasing financial exclusion and, obviously, that would be a great concern with the increasing digitisation of banking. We know there are huge swathes of the country that just do not have broadband, so that is not a factor for them, and there are people who are not able to undertake online banking, as well as the fact we are, unfortunately, moving away from community-based branches.

The Central Bank said recently in regard to the banks that there can be a distance between what they say and what their customers experience. Many credit unions have contacted me because they are concerned about their future. They would be concerned about what the Central Bank says and what they themselves experience, and this is what they have come to me about. They are concerned about the scale of the crisis facing them in the next five years. They have said the regulations being placed on the sector at the moment put them at a competitive disadvantage to the banks, and that this has stymied their ability to lend and, therefore, is strangling the customer's ability to borrow. At the same time, we see that Ulster Bank could potentially exit the market, which would add to that. We cannot underestimate the huge opportunity that credit unions have and the positive impact they can have if there is this move towards the closure of local bank branches.

I want to refer to a number of concerns the credit unions raised with me in regard to-----