Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his response. I know he is involved in and supportive of the credit unions. However, it is about getting the balance right. I do not believe we have ever got the balance right. It has all been geared towards the banks. Even in his response, the Taoiseach talked about building up the post offices but it is building them up to provide bank services for Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank. Why are we not building them up to provide for services for our communities? That is vitally important.

While it is important that the Government has an independent body, namely, the Central Bank, to regulate the credit unions we can set the agenda in terms of how it goes about that. That is very important and we need to do that. For example, the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach reported that the common bond structure is essential for the credit union movement. Why can all credit unions not introduce debit card services and build their services in that way?

The industry funding levy is to be increased in stages up to 50% by 2022 but the Irish League of Credit Unions highlighted in 2020 that this is "a tax on social capital and a levy on volunteers". We could reduce that also. That is what we should be doing to encourage credit unions to develop.

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