Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue today. This is a very serious topic with a local element affecting the town of Newbridge in my constituency and the very national element of the credit union movement in general and lessons learnt from the past.

I thank the Minister of State for attending today. I remind people what happened in Newbridge Credit Union. In January 2012, the Central Bank appointed a special manager to run Newbridge Credit Union. Effectively, for the following 22 months, that special manager stayed in place in a position where that person could say very little owing to a High Court gagging order. Very little information came out to the members of the credit union. They were kept in the dark and it led to a very significant amount of frustration. People did not know there were problems with their credit union because they were not able to be told. It led to considerable speculation as to what had happened.

When the Central Bank report was published in November 2013, just after the transfer to PTSB, we got examples of some significant lending, which would not be traditional to credit unions, that had caused major problems. However, the Central Bank decision to appoint a special manager could have been handled better. Leaving people in the dark for as long as they were without that key information was very difficult.

Since taking over the assets and liabilities in November 2013, PTSB has acted in the credit union building in Newbridge in the name of Newbridge Credit Union, albeit not in a position to give out new loans, but to continue to run existing loans. That has left Newbridge, the 15th largest town in the country, effectively without credit union services. The issue came to a head in recent weeks with PTSB sending cheques to thousands of members of the former credit union with the final closure of those savings accounts. That was the one cheque in the post most people did not want to get because they did not want to see their credit union close with the loss of those services.

This very large town does not have access to credit union services and businesses do not have the ability to take out those small loans. The big benefit for small businesses in the area was that when the dividend was paid at the end of the year, people had more money in their pockets heading into the Christmas period. There are many people in the town who do not traditionally want to be with banking institutions but like to be members of a credit union. That option is no longer available to them. It is crucial that we ensure the return of those credit union services to the town of Newbridge.

Ultimately, I want to see a credit union operating in Newbridge again. However, as a starting point we need people in Newbridge to have access to credit union services that we do not have at present. There is no common bond area covering Newbridge. The nearby Naas Credit Union has made an application to the Central Bank. I met Central Bank representatives in support of the Naas application. That proposal is still under consideration to the best of my knowledge.

It is absolutely crucial that Newbridge residents get access to a credit union. Down the line I hope that such a facility can open in the town itself. However, as a start, people who want to access those credit union services have to be able to do so. It is just too big an issue. The ordinary members of the former Newbridge Credit Union, who made no mistakes and are not at all at fault for what happened with the credit union, are the real losers at present.

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