Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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On social lending, the MABS presentation states that in personal lending and social lending certain persons are driven to alternative higher costs. It is an area in which I have particular interest. I have brought forward legislation on this. The Irish League of Credit Unions made a presentation here yesterday and one of the gaps it saw in the legislation was that credit unions could not lend to the community. When one looks at the ethos of credit unions, they are very much voluntary and democratic, and not for profit. The ethos is that they want to part of and give back to the community. They do not want their money sitting in the large financial institutions that make millions of euro for speculators. How important is that aspect in this legislation? Ms O'Connor mentioned that it is focused on regulatory matters but it is missing that other social element. Is it only the change to allow the credit unions to do that which is required, or what other areas would need to be developed?

I have another question for MABS, since its representatives are here. I commend the work MABS does. How do lending restrictions set down by the Financial Regulator on credit unions impact on their members or how is that seen by MABS?