Mr. Bobby McVeigh:

As Mr. Doyle has pointed out, ReBo seeks to engage with credit unions on a voluntary basis. It is time bound and it is incentivised. We are working with the sector in its entirety, including the League of Credit Unions, who have been supportive of the work of restructuring. To respond to Deputy Collins's question apropos of how we see the future of credit unions, as Mr. Doyle has outlined, when one looks at the new regulatory compliance measures, it is very difficult for some of these small credit unions to be in compliance when one considers their sources of incomes, that is, income from investments, which at this point in time is nil and the loan interest they will charge. When 50% of credit unions have assets of less than €20 million, it will be very difficult for them to continue to survive and to have sufficient income to pay operational costs. That being said, in my opinion the future of the credit unions in Ireland is not a problem.

The board of ReBo has support across the sector and is working with the credit unions and I foresee a system that will be much stronger and more viable with additional services that are cost-effective and efficient for the members.