Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. The Oireachtas Committee on Finance held some hearings recently into credit union issues and will be compiling a report. I hope that the report can be agreed by all members of the committee. It will make a series of recommendations to the Minister and to the House.

There is a high degree of frustration within the credit union sector. Some credit union managers and boards are quite demoralised at what they see as the lack of focus on the key issues that are holding them back. If one looks at the CUAC recommendations around tiered regulation, for example, which was not implemented following the commission on credit unions' recommendations, then there is serious concern. There is concern about the overall direction, a loan to asset ratio of just 26%, and the fact that longer loans have been replaced by shorter loans of smaller amounts. There are serious business model issues here which need to be addressed. Can the Minister tell us if he thinks that the CUAC implementation body is the appropriate body to deal with those business model issues?

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