Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I am sure the credit union movement welcomes any steps towards resolving the difficulty I outlined at the beginning, that is, the potential for credit unions to engage with SMEs in terms of loans. I accept that not every credit union branch will want to engage in that practice or may not aspire to it, and we have no difficulty with that. However, there are credit union branches which have the wherewithal financially to engage in lending to SMEs, which is healthy and should be welcomed by all.

I want to raise a parallel issue in regard to credit union lending. The Minister of State will be aware that lending requirements as set out in section 35 of the Credit Union Act also impose a significant obstacle for credit unions hoping to get back to lending. The requirements reduce credit union ability to lend by restricting credit unions from offering further credit to members where the loan has been rescheduled. This is a real problem for many credit union members.

I do not believe any legislation should be written in stone and should not be the subject of reviews. In particular, I strongly urge the Minister of State to urge the Minister for Finance to review the section 35 restrictions. Put simply, they hamper the ability of credit unions to lend and are preventing members from taking advantage of improvements in their own economic fortunes. For example, fortunately, people are going back to work, if not in the numbers we would wish for. While they may have had difficulties in terms of being unemployed while being a member of a credit union, we need to take into consideration that if they now have a job and an income, the situation of such people should be reviewed. That is all I ask.

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