Ms Noreen Byrne:

The question of the appeals process reverts to the issue of viability. When a decision is made that a credit union is non-viable, there should be a real appeals process but I am unsure whether this is set up in the draft scheme. That is my only comment on that issue. As for the definition of membership, the members are the owners of the credit union, as well as being the users of the service of the credit union. Consequently, it seems unusual there is no definition of what is a member in the Credit Union Act 1997. This appears somewhat odd because with the exception of the member, everyone else is defined and the member is defined elsewhere in other credit union legislation. Moreover, there is no indication in the draft scheme that this will change. It is a measure that could and should be introduced easily.