Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As a lifelong member of the credit union movement, I am strongly supportive of any measures we can put in place to support credit unions and the role they play in communities across the country. The credit union movement has made a distinctive and outstanding contribution to Irish society and has enabled many working families to progress in life because of the service that credit unions have provided.

I understand the basic thrust of what the Deputy is saying with regard to the perception of credit unions vis-à-visthe Central Bank and the regulator. That is not something that began today or yesterday, it is an ongoing perception and sense that credit unions have. On the other side, regulation is important. Regulation is there to protect the public, members of credit unions and people in general. Getting the balance right is the issue.

The Ministers concerned will continue to focus on this matter in order to see if we can facilitate greater capacity for credit unions to provide services over and above those they currently provide. I am very aware of the current difficulties and challenges, with very significant deposits, significant costs, some of which are regulatory embedded costs, and real difficulty in the marketplace in terms of getting a return.

In the context of housing, my understanding is that it has not all been one-sided traffic and that there needs to be a meeting of the ways in respect of this issue and the utilisation of some of the resources credit unions have in terms of their availability for social housing and financial support for the provision of housing more generally. That is an issue the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform have been working on for quite some time.

In the context of Ulster Bank's decision and the decision of Bank of Ireland, there are real issues there for towns the length and breadth of Ireland, for rural areas, particularly in the context of Ulster Bank, and for the Border region and the north west.

In the context of the post offices, a number of Ministers are working together to see what we can do to underpin and strengthen the post office network in terms of the consolidation of Government offline services and determining the degree to which we can utilise that network in towns across the country to support Government. The latter would, in turn, be of benefit to post offices in terms of financially underpinning them and giving greater stability and sustainability to the network.

The world is changing, as is the world of banking. The Government, along with local communities, needs to engage in finding new ways to inject new life, activities and services back into towns. That is something on which we are very focused.

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