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

I thank Deputy Harkin for introducing this Bill, but it looks like the Government will kick the can down the road again. The Minister of State spoke in the Dáil several times about his support for credit unions, but what the Government is doing shows no support for them. I met representatives of the credit unions in Skibbereen, Bantry, Clonakilty and Bandon in west Cork. They are fighting for their survival, but they will not survive. The Government will squeeze them out of existence. It is almost as if the Government wishes they were dead. It is time to wake up.

They want to compete and to give mortgages to people. Two weeks ago, a young man from Clonakilty came to my office. This young man is trying to get off the ground, but he cannot get a loan from the local banks or mortgage lenders, other than for €150,000. You could not buy a henhouse in Clonakilty for €150,000. This young man wants to get a decent mortgage. He has a decent job. The local credit union would sit down with him, I can guarantee that, because his family is known to that credit union and they know his background and that he will pay back what he borrows. Credit unions cannot compete. They cannot give the money to this gentleman. Successive Governments have stifled the credit unions and tried to put them out of business. It will not allow them to compete. Who is it allowing to compete? It is the Bank of Ireland, which closed its branches in Dunmanway and Bantry last week. The credit unions are still operating in those areas, as they are in Schull, Innishannon, Castletownbere and Dunmanway. They are the only institutions we can rely on. Deputies Michael Healy-Rae and Danny Healy-Rae spoke about providing bridging loans for people to get cataract, knee and hip operations. The only place I can point people to is the credit unions because they are the only places where people can meet in person and speak with somebody and, because they are known, they are likely to get their loans and they will repay them.

I ask the Government to give a genuine reason for stifling the credit unions out of business. Like previous Governments, that is what this Government is doing. Who is wagging the Government's tail? The Government needs to be honest about that. It needs to stand up and admit that it is not going to co-operate with the credit unions. That is the road it is taking in terms of the credit unions. It is trying to put them out of business and that is the road they are going. It is up to the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, to change that.

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