Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Harkin on bringing this Bill forward. I know she has put an enormous amount of work into it. Credit unions are the life and soul of many rural areas from which Bank of Ireland and some of the other banks have absconded, including rural areas and small towns such as Glenamaddy, where once there were two banks and where St. Jarlath's Credit Union, which was known as Glenamaddy credit union, is the only thing; or Ballyhaunis in County Mayo, which is a fairly big town. The credit unions have tried to step up to the mark, but their hands are being tied by the Central Bank.

In some cases, credit unions have been forced. One can dress it up whatever way one wants. Some will say they were not forced, but with the regulation that came in, it went from voluntary people trying to run the credit union in different parts of the country to being more professional and tougher to run. I agree with Deputy Harkin about putting a body together to watch over the rules of the Central Bank. Many credit unions, as the Minister will be aware, have a good few quid in them, but the problem is that it is costing them money to hold that money and they are struggling to get some of it out with all the different regulatory systems.

Many credit unions have gone into the debit card, as has been talked about earlier, but sadly they seem to be reluctant to put in pass machines around the credit unions. It would be good if with community involvement along with credit unions, one could put in a hub system where the likes of Bank of Ireland had fairly strategic buildings with a post office, credit union and other necessity-type operations in those small towns.

We also need to remember the farming community. With the banks, everything is nearly online. With due respect to all farmers, there are some who have never had a mobile phone and are finding it that bit difficult. When one goes into a bank, compared to many credit unions where at least someone will say hello, it is a machine one has to look at to lodge or take out money. In fairness to many of the credit unions, they have made an effort to have a person who, if he or she sees someone coming in who is rummaging and a bit flustered, will go up to that person and settle him or her down and give him or her the opportunity.

Deputy Harkin touched on what happened when this country was hitting the rocks. I remember the former Minister, Michael Noonan, in the Minister of State's position saying we had to put a certain amount of money aside for the credit unions. They did not use it because they were being run pretty efficiently. They covered anything they needed to do, which was not what the banking system did, as the people of this country know well.

We have to move credit unions on. Some of them have come together and it is about the turnover in the books and, as Deputy Harkin spoke about, the amount of liquidity or money in, bar what one can let out. They should now have the same facilities as banks. If credit unions wanted to go into the different schemes the Government brought out under Covid, they should be brought into them or given the opportunity if they want to take them up.

Whether people like it or not, credit unions are going to be the bank of rural Ireland right around this country because the rest of them have upped sticks and gone. I ask the Minister of State to give credit unions the opportunity to provide the same types of loans, including for land or houses, as the banks. They are doing it on a smaller scale at the moment but the liquidity situation is crippling them.

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