Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To give a flavour of the proposal, the suggestion is that participating credit unions will be provided with post point terminals by An Post that will deliver a number of services, including Bill payment, mobile phone top-ups, one4all gift cards, refuse charges, electronic funds transfer payments, television licences, parking and toll top-ups, stamps and the local property tax. The credit union would earn various rates of commission depending on the services provided. For lodgments, each participating credit union can issue customers who wish to use the service with the lodgment card allowing them to lodge money into a post office nationwide. The money will, in turn, be lodged to the appropriate credit union account. There is a suggestion of developing a micro-loan product that will be processed between the post offices and the banks.

It is an interesting proposal and it will develop further through interaction with my Department. We must keep the Central Bank fully informed about this because, in the final analysis, the credit union division in the Central Bank is the regulator of the credit unions. We must communicate with the parent Department of An Post to ensure everything is lined up. It is an interesting proposal and, in principle, we would like to advance it further. It is at an early stage and was only introduced on 14 August. If something similar could be done in Galway, I can provide the Deputy with the data.

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