Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I move amendment No. 86:

In page 58, before section 29, to insert the following new section:29.--The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following after section 84:

“84A.--Without prejudice to any other function exercisable by the Bank, where the Bank considers it appropriate or necessary in the circumstances, it may make regulations for any of the following purposes:

(a) protecting the financial interests of members of credit unions either generally or for the purposes of the financial services legislation;
(b) ensuring compliance by credit unions with the requirements imposed under financial services legislation;

and, in particular, the Bank may make regulations prescribing certain oversight, policies, procedures, processes, practices, systems, controls, skills, expertise and reporting arrangements which credit unions are required to maintain.
84B.--(1) In making regulations under this Act the Bank shall have regard to the need to ensure that the requirements imposed by the regulations so made are effective and proportionate having regard to the nature, scale and complexity of credit unions, or the category or categories of credit unions, to which the regulations will apply.
(2) Before making regulations under this Act, the Bank shall consult with --

(a) the Minister and the Credit Union Advisory Committee,
(b) any other body that appears to the Bank to have expertise or knowledge of credit unions generally, and
(c) any other body that the Bank considers appropriate to consult in the circumstances.

(3) Regulations made under this Act may--

(a) contain any incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions that appear to the Bank to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of the regulations,
(b) apply either generally to a specified category or categories of credit union, and
(c) include different provisions in relation to different categories of credit union.

(4) A consultation by the Bank under subsection (3) which is conducted by reference to a section of this Act that has been inserted into or substituted or amended by a provision of the Credit Union Act 2012 shall be taken to be a consultation for the purposes of subsection (3) notwithstanding that such consultation takes place before that subsection has been commenced.”.”.

This amendment substitutes a new section 29 which splits section 84A into two separate sections, 84A and 84B. This is done for the purposes of clarity. Section 84A sets out the regulation making power of the bank. Section 84B sets out that the bank must engage with the Minister, the credit union advisory committee, credit union stakeholders and any other body or person the bank considers appropriate to consult. The section also provides that any consultation by the bank prior to the commencement of the section will be considered a valid consultation as required under the section. Officials in the Department of Finance are in discussions with the Office of the Attorney General about the best approach to be adopted in order to achieve this objective.

Amendments Nos. 87 to 90, inclusive, refer to financial services legislation. They relate to references to financial services legislation in this section. I dealt with the substantive issue when dealing with amendment No. 3. I propose to deal with these amendments on a similar basis.