Mr. Pat Owens:

I just wanted to clarify that matter. We do not advocate the manager should be a director.

To respond to Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett's comments, as we stated clearly in our submission, we would welcome appropriate regulation. There is a role for State regulation, but this should support the concept of democratic control by the members rather than take it from them.

Credit unions have been involved in social lending during the years. While many sports clubs may receive grants, they also come to us to borrow to fund the provision of facilities and equipment. The ILCU's suggestion is that the Government roll out some sort of bond which credit unions could buy that would be used specifically for the purposes of social lending.

We have funds to invest and if the Government gave us a reasonable return on our money and it went into social lending, we would be quite happy to lend funds.