Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Credit unions operate the savings protection scheme. The Minister said that they have some €13 billion in deposits at various credit unions. He suggested he might exempt some credit unions, on a selected basis and perhaps only smaller ones, from the requirements of this. Can the Minister clarify that this is what he said? Is the savings protection scheme of the Irish League of Credit Unions going in aggregate into the scheme, as suggested in section 7? Will the Minister have ministerial discretion under section 4 to exempt some smaller credit unions from the scheme?

As well as providing a countrywide savings system that is very popular, many people who approach the Money Advice and Budgeting Service to sort out financial affairs are first advised to join a credit union and make regular savings so that they qualify for loans. It has been suggested that some credit unions have financial difficulties and some have had the bad experience of being sold bond investments that did not turn out very well. Credit unions must keep a relatively large proportion of savings on deposit and are more restricted in that respect than banks. I welcome the fact that credit unions are included in the scheme. Will the Minister vary the terms and conditions for them? Will he apply the 0.2% rate on a blanket basis for them or will it be varied?

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