Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is highly likely that the commercial retail banking system would not be enamoured by the idea that credit unions could offer a greater level of shared services for members. We are talking about front-office services not back-office services. I accept the Minister of State’s point that there is no obstacle to the latter currently. This is about credit unions, through sharing services, being able to offer a wider range of services to their members which they are somewhat limited in their ability to do at the moment. I suspect – one could call me a conspiracy theorist – that the for-profit banking sector would not be terribly pleased with that and could lobby intensively at some point in the future behind the scenes or in some way try to exercise influence to prevent credit unions moving in that direction. I do not suggest the Government would be in any way complicit with such efforts by the banking system but it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that a private banking system would use its influence to try to prevent credit unions offering an alternative to its network. From that point of view it would be useful and it would give the credit unions confidence if it were explicitly stated that the legislation allows for the future development of shared front-office services for members of credit unions with the necessary conditionality on the need for regulation, protection and infrastructural capacity. The Minister should examine the matter and consider how we could come up with a formulation that sets that out in the legislation while putting the necessary protections and safeguards in place.

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