Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is correct. We are trying not to go too far. Our purpose here is to provide, as the Deputy has said, the broadest enabling environment. There is considerable enthusiasm among the credit union movement to take this and run with it. Of necessity, it is for them to work out the operation of that although, in the normal course, it will be regulated by the Central Bank. The particular commercial arrangements credit unions create between themselves, the referral pathways and processes, are not a matter for legislation but a matter for the credit unions to create and develop and allow to flourish.

Yesterday, I met representatives of 13 credit unions in Mullingar. Those credit unions are of various sizes. There is great enthusiasm about how they may step into the next stage of the implementation of this legislation. The Deputy is correct. As we discussed on Second Stage, what happens if the opportunity created by the legislation is not taken? How do we, as members of the Oireachtas, assess and review the enabling environment we have created? We have built into the legislation an annual review by the credit union advisory committee, CUAC, of the implementation of the legislation. The report will be provided to the Minister and published. That will allow us, as legislators, to assess the impact of what we have created in this enabling legislation. It is a matter then for determining how well or otherwise we view implementation as going relative to the overall strategy of creating and enabling a strong community bank, which is part of the retail banking review strategy and our banking strategy for the future. We think this legislation enables that but we cannot set up frameworks or refer members for mortgages. It is for the credit union movement to step in and do that. I have heard from the credit union movement and I see representative groups are reflected here today. I have received letters from them in recent days. They are excited. Indeed, they are getting ahead of this work with the establishment of the credit union service organisations, CUSO. They are ready to take this and go with it. Of course, we want to ensure the opportunity is taken and that is why we have built in CUAC, which we think is an appropriate body, to conduct such a review to assess the strategy annually.