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

Everybody is sympathetic to the notion of renewal, bringing new people in and developing them to run credit unions.

That is a laudable aspiration. However, there is a problem in artificially imposing limits which could actually have a detrimental effect without resolving the problem, particularly in small rural areas and towns where one might not have the base of people with the necessary skills and abilities. The Government will have to reconsider this.

Initially, the Irish League of Credit Unions was agreeable to the term limits. However, when it went back to the local credit union branches and members, people were up in arms about it, expressing strong opposition and reservations about the limits. The Government should take this on board. The grassroots of the credit union movement are deeply concerned about this issue, seeing it as a threat to their ability to function and an erosion of the democratic right of credit union members to decide who they want on their boards. It is a powerful argument when it is pointed out that no such limits apply in the banking sector or, indeed, in politics where one could argue they are more required. That is not to say that one does not get cliques or stagnant leadership in a credit union and some form of dealing with these is required. However, the credit unions' proposal that there should be protocols at local level to ensure there is rotation and renewal of board members is a reasonable compromise. This will bring together the Minister's reasonable concerns with those of the members about their right to make decisions about who they want serving on boards and as officers. The Minister should consider the concerns of the grassroots of the credit union movement and bring forward a formula that allays them.

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