Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 21 March 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Overview of the Credit Union Sector: Discussion

4:00 pm

Mr. Kevin Johnson:

There is a chicken and egg situation here. When we spoke about this previously, what was quoted was the very low percentage of lending in that particular category. It was stated that little over 2% of the total loans were in the long-term lending bracket. We then set about trying to bring in the capability and expertise. It comes back to the earlier point about what actually constitutes a proposal. We discuss these things and have very good engagement at times. There is a good professional relationship there. At deputy governor level, we have asked for greater transparency around that expectation. We will then set it out and deliver it. We can argue about fairness or otherwise after that but at least if we understood what is expected from a proposal, we can do that. To say there is none is probably unfair.