Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister of State said, it is important that we in government encourage credit unions to give out loans. The funding is there. This must be looked at. More than ever we are now seeing the housing crisis, and there are more people investing in their homes during Covid by decorating and so on. This is what it is all about and this is what we need to encourage. I ask that we would work with the credit unions a bit more on what we could do to give out more loans, and on what the criteria are, in particular the criteria under which can invest and what they can invest in. This needs to be looked at. Even though I welcome the good work being done on all sides, there are issues that need to be addressed. We are all blessed with the number of credit unions in the State. They do an excellent job but they have money and we must make sure that this money gets out to the communities. We cannot have any barriers. I ask that no barriers are put in front of any credit union.

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