Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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The term of three years seems unbalanced. In the public sector seven years are the norm. For example, the term for Secretaries General is seven years. I increased the period to five years to find a happy medium between the pressure for three years and the norm of seven years. I agree with the principle of limiting terms because any voluntary organisation is open to capture. Even party political selection committees can see people arrive at meetings who were never seen before in order to ensure the selection of a particular candidate. From my own experience with voluntary organisations, it can be incredibly difficult to find suitable people for these jobs. This may not be as much of a problem for some of the larger tier 3 credit unions but it will become unnecessarily difficult for smaller credit unions to recruit the right people who can invest the time needed to understand their role and the idiosyncrasies of their organisation.