Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Deputy Harkin on bringing forward this very timely Bill. I am very disappointed at the Minister of State's reply. To defer this for nine months is not the way to do this business. During the week - I think it was last Monday - we were at the launch of the Greenify home improvement loan product by some credit unions. The Minister of State was there and spoke. It was very positive. That is a case in point of credit unions coming together to provide packages of schemes for their members across the communities.

This Bill is setting out how credit unions can be of more benefit to their members and communities. It is something very simple. The credit union movement is there. It has the potential to create economic activity and drive our domestic economy forward, but for some reason we are holding back, looking at reports, doing committee reviews and it is going on and on. There is frustration among communities. There is frustration, first, because the main pillar banks, as we call them, are withdrawing services from our towns and villages throughout the country. At the same time we have talk about the rejuvenation of these towns and villages.

If I take my own constituency alone, the credit union movement serves many communities including Athenry, Menlough, Kinvara and Portumna. St. Jarlath's Credit Union in Tuam has branches in Headford, Dunmore, Abbeyknockmoy, Mountbellew, Turloughmore and Corrandulla. There is Naomh Breandan Credit Union in Loughrea and we have a credit union in Gort. That shows how embedded credit unions are within our communities. We need to tap the full potential of credit unions to provide the funding required by people who want to do retrofitting of their homes, for example, which we are all talking about as going to save the world in terms of climate action. They are providing this type of facility through the Greenify project which St. Jarlath's Credit Union is involved with.

These are the credit unions' efforts to try to become more relevant in their communities. They are local, they are embedded and they have, as I said, the potential to develop our communities. What is lacking is due to there being too many constraints on them to do anything beyond lending small money to local people. We have not looked at what they could do with mortgages and all the other loans for retrofitting houses.

One can look at the credit union movement and all it has done to support students. Deputy Cairns said she would not have been able to go to college without credit union support. I tell the Minister of State this is an opportunity that is staring us in the face. We have been talking about community banking and how we can get it going to replace the pillar banks. The fact is we have community banking but the credit unions do not have all the tools necessary to deliver all the services their members require. It is important we always bear in mind this is not profit making. We are not trying to make the credit union another bank which is profit making. They are still owned by the members, for the members. It is important we encourage every credit union in the country to work to its full potential. I plead with the Minister of State to withdraw his amendment.

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