Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 14 December 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
General Scheme of the Co-operative Societies Bill 2022: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Mr. John Shine:
Before I answer that, I will come back to the Deputy's point about the co-operative development unit in terms of statistics. My understanding is that the unit assisted somewhere in the region of 80 to 100 co-operatives during its existence. Not all of those were set up under the industrial and provident societies legislation as some were set up under company law but the co-op ethos was reflected in their constitutions. From a review of the register, it would appear that ten to 15 of those remain. Over the years, the majority of them have been wound up and are no longer in operation.