Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will speak on behalf of Deputy Sherlock. I will curtail my remarks on the amendment. I referenced this particular point in my Second Stage contribution. Both amendments relate to the word "before". The Minister of State will be familiar with them. As I outlined previously, we have concerns about business being dealt with before a meeting takes place and they are based on issues relating to transparency, security, safety and integrity. We need to proceed very carefully on this matter. The truth is that, insofar as is practicable, all of the decisions should be made, not in advance but at meetings when people have access to all of the information that they need and can understand fully what is being put before them. There is a risk of undermining governance and the manipulation of outcomes of meetings.

While I do not want to stray into other aspects that are not covered by this amendment, there are concerns about the integrity of the technology and the burden that all of this might impose on credit unions that may already be stretched in many ways. I think the Minister of State would accept and understand that. We also have concerns about ensuring that the fitness and probity criteria and requirements are followed. The Central Bank and the credit union movement worked very hard on that in recent years in terms of people going forward for election to sensitive positions. These issues need to be addressed at meetings, not in advance.

Could the Minister of State clarify a point he made earlier on voting in advance? Did he mean exclusively by post or would arrangements be made for individual members or an accumulation of members represented on some occasions by a proxy, to vote by means other than by post? That would be an important clarification. I do not think anybody would have an issue with postal voting in advance. The question I have is whether the Minister of State would be concerned about the integrity of the process if it is done electronically given the risk of exposure involved in that.

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