Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the amendments and I put forward a similar amendment on Committee Stage. Amendments Nos. 7, 11 and 13 relate specifically to CUSOs and the sharing of services at the level of the credit union. The Minister's response on Committee Stage was essentially that this is actively encouraged and is already happening - I know it is happening in west Cork, for example. The view he expressed was that by explicitly listing the functions, we could actually be narrowing the scope of what credit unions could do.

There was a separate debate on the issue of sharing services at member level, which the Minister of State has again referred to as shared branching, a term the credit unions do not like, although we understand what the Minister of State means by that. There was a separate amendment on this point on Committee Stage, amendment No. 11, which we withdrew on the basis of a commitment that the credit union advisory committee would examine it and engage with the stakeholders. As I interpret it, the amendments we are now discussing relate to the sharing of services at credit union level.

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