Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to get an opportunity to speak about banking reform on behalf of the Rural Independent Group. It is a huge issue, especially in light of two banks wanting to leave our country and having their minds made up but also in light of Bank of Ireland recently closing branches in Dunmanway and Bantry, in west Cork. That has been a devastating blow to those towns, which had been loyal to Bank of Ireland, and to the people who live in the surrounding areas: on the peninsulas, in the surrounds of Bantry, Castletownbere, Kilcrohane, Sheep's Head, Mizen Head and Beara, out into Drimoleague and Dunmanway and all the way down into Ballineen and the Skibbereen area. These people stood loyally by the banks down through the years, and those banks have treated their customers shoddily. I come from an area that lost a bank, the AIB branch in Schull. Such a closure has a devastating effect on a town. Within a year the local supermarket in Schull closed, with a loss of, I think, 17 or 18 jobs in that local community, so such closures deal a devastating blow in local communities. The problem is that it does not look like there is a lot of confidence in the banking sector at present when banks are leaving our country and local banks are being closed.

We have to look at the credit union as a way out. It is stated in the programme for Government that the Government will review the policy framework for credit unions. Where is the Government with this review? For some reason in this country there were powers that be in previous governments that made sure that the credit unions could not compete. They are ready to compete, to offer mortgages and to work with customers for those mortgages, which are badly needed, and they have an excellent record. I met with the Bantry, Bandon, Skibbereen and Dunmanway credit union managers recently to try to see whether we can further this for them in the Dáil, get the Government to see sense, forge ahead with the policy framework, make the changes and allow credit unions to compete in the market. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State would explain how far we are from that. What kinds of changes will be made?

We should also look at the post office sector. Post offices are closing their doors in rural Ireland and haemorrhaging and they need support. I would like to see the vision the Minister of State has for the post office sector. Post offices deserve better. The postmasters and postmistresses out there serve their communities. There are opportunities there and we are not availing of them. The Minister of State might give us an insight into that. Instead of focusing on closing doors, maybe we should focus on better opening the doors that are already there.

I will give my colleague the remainder of my time.

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