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

I am glad to hear that the credit union advisory committee, CUAC, will focus on business model development for credit unions in 2018, which the Minister will be aware is a clause of the confidence and supply agreement which we have not seen thus far. We need this to happen. There is no tiered regulation. One of the central recommendations of the commission in 2012 was tiered regulation. Instead, we have a one size fits all approach to regulation. The lending restrictions need to be reviewed, particularly around long-term lending. There are serious issues with communications between the registrar and the credit union sector. In regard to levies, the Minister's predecessor said in the Seanad in October 2011 that the cost of bailing out credit unions could reach €1 billion but there has been no net contribution by the State to rescue the credit union sector thus far because it paid for it itself through levies and that needs to be reviewed.

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