Mr. Ronan Hession:

While I am no longer in the credit union area myself, I know this was an issue that has been subject of discussions between some of my Departmental colleagues and the credit union movement. It was a big issue for credit unions in the commission process, and during the debate on the 2012 Act there was a small number of issues on which the credit union movement felt there needed to be amendments to the Act. One of them was to allow credit unions to get involved in investment in State projects which they felt resonated with their ethos. Social housing was one of these. There seems to be an obvious mutual interest in credit unions looking to use their money - their surplus funds - because, as Mr. McVeigh says, they need to get a return on their investments rather than allowing it to sit in a bank account. Can they put it to use in some way that is socially useful? It is a complicated space. There are a lot of different initiatives in social housing. There are a lot of people putting their attention to it. There are also a lot of people interested in investing in social housing. The difficult question is how do they get their money back. There have been quite constructive discussions. I have to say, in a fortuitous way, it is quite helpful that the outgoing CEO of the league is going to work in this area. It helps to keep the good relationship we have had with the league working in a new space. I cannot give the Deputy anything groundbreaking on this except to say there is an openness to it and that consultations are happening directly with the sector's representatives. It would be a very positive thing if that hook-up were to happen.