Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In response to the Deputy's second question, it will have to meet the regulatory requirements of the Central Bank in respect of the operation of credit unions. It will have to do that. In respect of the work of the Minister of State, Deputy English, which the Deputy touched on, maybe it is the case that the Minister of State was referring to specific areas of housing policy but I would have to check that. Certainly from our point of view, we now believe there are no barriers remaining to the set-up of this fund. The responsibility and initiative now needs to come from elements in the credit union movement to see if they actually want to go ahead and do it, which I believe they do. For the Deputy's interest, on Tuesday afternoon I met all the credit unions in the Department of Finance and had what I think they felt to be a productive meeting on a lot of different matters. I meet them collectively in the Department on a relatively frequent basis and hope to meet them again in that format, where we had all unions and representative bodies together.

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