Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 6 May 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Access to Finance for SMEs (Resumed): Credit Review Office and Chambers Ireland

2:55 pm

Mr. Seán Murphy:

As I understand it, it could be but it would want to be a very sophisticated credit union. It could not be a local district credit union. Credit unions were originally about freeing customers from moneylenders. It was about lending money for someone to buy shoes for their children at Christmas, not lending €30,000 in working capital to a business. It would have to be very targeted and there would need to be a high level of professionalism in a credit union to enable it to lend such sums.