Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We all share the common goal of ensuring that credit unions have the requisite number of staff with suitable qualifications and skills required to the job they are being asked to do. Deputy Doherty made a fair point in asking whether we are now accepting a pretty cumbersome set of circumstances whereby, if a credit union found it did not have the correct range of skills required on its board, it would make an application to the Central Bank, which would decide on the position, after which a name would come forward that the bank would have to sanction. If this applies, it is because the credit union makes the application to the Central Bank on the basis that it feels it does not have the requisite number of people to serve the purpose in question because of a lack of skills or expertise. This gives the credit union the power to make the first move. However, Deputy Doherty's point is important in that it is a question of what happens next. This issue is one that the Central Bank needs to be mindful of in circumstances where it is trying to expedite an application on behalf of the credit union. Certainly, any help that the Department of Finance can bring to bear on the bank to speed up the process and putting in place a code of practice in this regard would make sense.

On the remarks made by Deputy Boyd Barrett, there have been many investigations into banking but we have not had a commission yet. What we have attempted to do is put the legislative requirements in place to deal with the issues concerning credit unions. Without wishing to reopen cans of worms, I am pretty happy that the Government has addressed virtually all the issues concerning the directors who were in place in the various credit institutions, whether we own them or not, and that the institutions have a new governance system in place with new staff who will, I hope, recover the banks on behalf of us all.

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