Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wonder on what planet they are living. If everything was as fine and dandy as they believed, would credit union members and volunteers be here today? Would they be worried about their very existence and future? They would not. I wonder what this Government has against the credit union movement, as there are examples that would lead one to believe it has something against the credit union movement. Some years ago I heard the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, say it would take up €1 billion to supplement the losses expected in the sector. The net loss was €11 million.

This Government spoke about how it would burn bondholders on entering office but the only bonds I am aware of that were burned by this Government were credit union bonds to the tune of €15 million.

It has instructed this regulator to be over-regulatory, to over-restrict and to place obstacles in the way of loans and investments and to impede the volunteering nature of many communities and the role they play by virtue of what they have been asked to do in fulfilling their roles as volunteers and as directors in the credit union movement. It is undermining credit unions. As the Minister of State's colleague, Deputy Rabbitte, said earlier, if the Government undermines the ethos of the credit unions, it undermines the credit union movement itself. I was delighted to hear him say that without the restrictions of Cabinet membership that he has had heretofore.

There is no doubt that many credit unions are facing closure. The Minister of State would say they face amalgamations, by virtue of what ReBo would recommend. The restrictions placed on them in recent years have been saved somewhat by virtue of the prudent investment that many of them have made throughout the country. They have achieved a return on investment of 4% or 5%, which supplements the halving of the number of loans they provide. We have arrived at the crossroads whereby that door of investment will no longer be open. The return on the investment they have will not be sufficient to meet the losses incurred by the halving of their loan book.

There is no doubt that if the credit union movement and the credit union suffers, society suffers. Communities suffer. The decimation of many towns will continue. We have seen the effect of post office closures, Garda station closures, and of the amalgamation and closure of rural schools. We have seen the effect of the loss of retail and pubs in many towns and villages. The Government's future and potential re-election prospects rest on many issues across society. It is not just a rural and urban divide in this instance, because credit unions are pivotal to the lifeblood of many cities and organisations throughout the country. I implore the Government to recognise that this movement is at a crossroads and to accept that there must be more meaningful negotiations to bring about a resolution whereby the restrictions placed on credit unions can be lifted to allow them to continue to play the great role that many of the Minister of State's colleagues have said they have played in the past in getting us to this juncture.

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