Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I agree with the Minister's attempt to grope towards a fair balance. There is no doubt that the credit unions have had much lower loan to deposit ratios and would be less risky in that sense, so they should qualify for a lower percentage charge. I hope that when the Minister scrutinises the matter, he can come to that view.

Like him, I have concerns that some credit unions may not be managed to the highest standards. In section 5 he envisages that each year the Central Bank will look afresh at each institution and see how they are behaving, but under section 7 he does not intend applying that to groups of credit unions. Will the umbrella groups do what the Central Bank has indicated it will not be doing? Will there be some scrutiny of individual management and approaches if the group charge and therefore the exemption from the section 5 provision occurs? The last thing we need is for savers in a credit union to be worried, even with this, about the professionalism of management.

The Minister is trying to evolve a system and to some degree there is an inconsistency between sections 5 and 7. Section 5 envisages annual scrutiny by the Central Bank and section 7 indicates that this will not happen in the case of credit unions. That is probably a sensible balance but we need some reassurance that somebody will carry out invigilation of individual unions. That is where the successor to the registrar will be involved.

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