Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Harkin for the work she has put into this Bill, which I support. As the Minister of State outlined, I accept there will be issues to be teased out regarding the role of the Minister. We would all be very sceptical of that and the common bond.

The essence of the Bill is to increase the services a credit union is allowed to provide. It refers to a policy committee, which is advisory, and other miscellaneous changes that are important. We are back at the stage again where we have what I call the nine-month pregnancy adjournment. Usually, a pregnancy is something wonderful and we look forward to the birth of a lovely baby at the end of it, but in my time, in this Dáil that has taken on a whole new meaning. It is a method of delay to ensure we do not get something, and I have a difficulty with that. I am sure people will have a difficulty with me using the pregnancy analogy; however I cannot but when I hear about a delay of nine months and then the Bill goes off into wonderland.

As Deputy Fitzmaurice stated, a lot of places simply have the post office and the credit union. Today, we are looking at credit unions, but we could easily be looking at post offices. Is it not extraordinary that the two financial institutions that have kept the country going, and kept us going, are struggling and reliant on politicians to bring motions and various amendments when all the resources are on the Government's side? We constantly say we have to change and there is no going back. The banks let us down. Not alone did they let us down, but they cost us billions of euro and we have lost trust.

Let me declare a conflict of interest. I am sure all of us have a conflict of interest. I am a proud member of a credit union. I have both shares and a loan. The credit union has been with me throughout my life as a struggling student and, later on when I was lucky to have a series of jobs, it has kept me going. I use the credit union for general elections. I am a proud member and I hope I can give back to the credit union now. Credit unions have given to all of us. We are now in a situation where they are struggling. We have any number of reports. I thank the staff in my office for their work on this. We had the establishment of the Commission on Credit Unions in 2011, more than ten years ago. The commission reported in 2012. There is a report by the credit union advisory committee, CUAC, the review of the implementation of the recommendation of the Commission on Credit Unions 2006, the Oireachtas joint committee's report on the review of the credit union sector in 2007 and the CUAC implementation group final report in 2018. We are waiting on the report by the Minister of State, which was imminent in September. When will the report be completed and will it be published? That information would be helpful.

Credit unions operate on a community-based volunteer system. It is extraordinary because, in a sense, it is a contradiction, but not really, because that is how the country is run. Credit unions are run on a voluntary basis in a professional manner by committed people and they have served us well. Surely it is a model to learn from, look at and work with so we can improve it. At the very least we should allow them to increase the number of services they provide.

We had the withdrawal of Ulster Bank, of which I am a customer, and KBC from Ireland. There is less and less competition. All the language of neoliberalism calling for more competition has in fact led to much less competition. We are back relying on the basics – the struggling post offices and the credit unions - without any obvious help. I realise that the Minister of State made many positive comments about credit unions in his speech and that he backs them, but positive words only go so far. We must learn that we can never go back again in this country. I say this like a broken record. We need transformative change. Part of that transformative change is the credit union based on an ethos that is for the community. I accept credit unions are not perfect and regulation is needed, but if the regulation is a stranglehold on them then we need to look at the type of regulation. While not reducing the efficacy of the regulation, we need to look at how that fits in to the community model and the ethos behind credit unions.

I hope the report that is imminent will be the start. The Minister of State might tell us if he is going to publish it. It looks like the Government has the votes to get the nine-month delay and that it will be another nine months before we can begin to bring the transformative change to ensure credit unions are an essential part of the solution, as are post offices and local industries.

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