Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her response. I appreciate her comments about reflecting on the issue. CUAC is obviously an important player in this but the provisions of the Bill empower the Minister to make the decision, at the end of the day, even if CUAC is not supportive of it. We just need to bear that in mind. I have said this on numerous occasions. There is one thing across the political divide that I have seen in my 13 years as finance spokesperson for Sinn Féin, and that is that there is broad, cross-party support for the credit union movement. We want to unleash the potential of the credit union movement. I am not suggesting that this would happen but it is important in a provision like this where you give the Minister for Finance the ability to set a rate for lending in a market. As I said, I think whatever Minister there is in the future would do the right thing but there should be oversight, whether that is a resolution before the Dáil or something else. It is a simple mechanism and it would be a safeguard given the importance of the matter. The Minister for Finance does not have that power in any other lending environment. The Central Bank has it and the independence of the Central Bank is sacrosanct in relation to that. I welcome the Minister of State's comments. Maybe she could look at that.