Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Ring, is in a very important position to take a leadership role in terms of completing the talking and starting the action. We know the post offices are in difficulty, notwithstanding huge efforts which I made when Minister for Social Protection to ensure that they retained a large slice of business via the Department of Social Protection. We know that the credit union model needs to make changes to become a more viable people-local community banking service, including in regard to the provision of basic bank accounts. We know also that the Department of Finance, be it the Minister or the senior officials, is cold on the idea of local community based banking, yet the Taoiseach's favourite model is the viable local banking structure, Sparkassen, which operates throughout villages and towns in rural regions of Germany. I call on the Minister of State to grasp the opportunity to give leadership on this issue.

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