Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The credit union in Gorey provided hugely important cashflow to those businesses. I know from speaking to other businesses over the years that the credit union has always been there.

The Government and the Minister are supportive of a change to section 35. The Government is supportive of change, and there will be a paper on tiered regulation, which will be available next month. Time is of the essence and I welcome this opportunity to contribute to what has been a good constructive debate. I do not agree with everything that has been said by some of the Members, but we are in a much better place than we thought we were in 2011. There was a real concern, and I am not sure what Deputy referenced it, that the difficulties being experienced by the banks would flow in a similar way to the credit unions. This did not happen. It did not happen because of the local knowledge available in every credit union. Something that, in my view, has been forgotten about in some areas is the local knowledge of the people behind the counter in the credit unions who know the families who pay and who have always paid over generations. This is something we should not lose.

I thank the Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach. The committee has done a lot of good work. Many recommendations are being enacted at this time. Will they all be enacted? Probably not, but most of them will and I support this as, I know, does the Minister, Deputy Donohoe.

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