Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Amendment No. 129 is similar, it relates to the scheduled amendments the Minister will make to the Credit Union Act. Does the Government agree that in seeking to place the credit union movement under the control of IFSRA, which primarily deals with large financial institutions, some of the requirements for the movement do not reflect its ethos? It is voluntary, collective and its members are the controllers of the movement. It is a different organisation from a commercial bank. Some credit unions are small and localised while some reflect large-scale public service employment.

My amendment No. 129 proposes that a complaint by a credit union member should first be dealt with through the credit union's internal complaints procedure. The reason for that is that in the previous Bill, which established the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority, the Minister introduced an amendment promising that the ethos and the nature of the credit union movement would be respected. Deputies are concerned that the impact of the Minister's approach, particularly on small-scale credit unions, lacks due process in terms of the history and style of the credit union movement. If a member makes a complaint, it ought to go to the committee of the credit union, which should seek to address it. As in other voluntary organisations, there are arguments and disputes within credit unions. The type of regulation now being introduced by the Government is enormously onerous and detailed, far more so than the comparative regulation of banks and for-profit financial institutions. In order to respect the ethos of the credit union movement I suggest it would be good to encourage it to have its own complaints procedure utilised by members who are unhappy with its services. That in turn would support the accountability of the management committee of the credit union and the resilience of the credit union movement in being accountable to its members.

Some of the legislation relating to the credit union movement will prove to be particularly onerous, particularly for small credit unions. The Minister should encourage the ethos of the credit union movement, of the membership acting collectively, of the management committee of the credit union reporting to the members and, where there are complaints, of the credit union itself taking responsibility to address the complaints.

The financial services regulator will be busy drawing up codes of practice relating to complaints. So will the financial services ombudsman. I am quite sure they will be advising credit unions on how a complaints procedure should operate under this Bill. The credit unions already have a complaints procedure. The purpose of the Labour Party amendment is to ensure it is utilised and that the regulator is not the first recourse. That is similar to what is being offered to the banks whereby a customer must go first to the bank or financial institution to make a complaint. We are suggesting that the same rules should apply in the case of our very important and very valued credit union movement.

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