Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I too am a member of a credit union, the Desmond credit union in Newcastle West. I know the work that is done at local level by the credit union movement. I do not disagree with Deputy Rabbitte on the ethos of the credit union movement. Deputies Heydon and Harrington had painful experiences of what happens when things go wrong in a credit union. This demonstrates the benefits of regulation. No Member would want to see the experiences of west Cork and south Kildare being repeated in any area.

This sector has significant potential. The overall assets in the sector come to approximately €14 billion. The amount available to lend is more considerable than what has been reported, and is approximately €9 billion. This is not a small sector but has massive potential. At the Committee of Public Accounts and the communications committee on the future of the post office network, I have pointed out credit unions are an opportunity to provide financial services hubs, particularly in communities in which banks are closing and post office services are being eroded. However, for a credit union to provide postal services or social welfare payments will require a change to existing legislation. This week the Government launched a pilot scheme for the micro-loan initiative. In areas where there is an obvious lack of basic financial services but a strong credit union movement, I would like to see the Government looking at the possibility, even for a short fixed period, of developing a hub network for financial services with credit unions.

The Government has had to step in on several unfortunate and painful occasions to deal with credit unions in trouble. The Government’s record in protecting the credit unions and their members’ assets has been very clear. Those credit unions which ran into difficulties are small in number but there are opportunities for improvement. The thrust of the motion, politicised as it is, goes against the grain of what we are trying to achieve with regulation. Every night we see television news reports, to which Deputy Michael McGrath is no stranger, on a group of Members below in the Leinster House basement trawling over five years of a lack of regulation in the banking sector. We do not want that happening to credit union sector.

See this speech in context