Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----and I am responding on the Sinn Féin motion, which is uncosted and would increase house prices, so the Deputy should allow me to finish. The overall fiscal framework has not changed. The cost-of-living crisis remains and, as Deputy Doherty and others know, the Government is well aware of the challenges people are facing. In that context, in the coming weeks, as has been well planned and signalled, the Government is considering, in the context of measures that were introduced in the budget, how to provide the best and most targeted supports on a sustainable basis that would be of the broadest benefit to the greatest number of people. Those decisions have been signalled. They will cost significant sums and the Government has to work out what are the best measures to take that forward. The Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, along with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and the leaders of the three parties in government are considering that at this time.

In my role as Minister of State with responsibility for credit unions, I see a substantial opportunity for credit unions to come more firmly into the mortgage market. This is a slightly different point but it is one I want to make every time I can do so. There are significant sums in reserve. The loan-to-asset ratio of credit unions is too low, at 27%. There is an opportunity to create another force in the mortgage market, which has been uncompetitive in the Irish context due to the exit of various banks in the past decade. There is an opportunity for credit unions, however, which are local and trusted financial institutions, to play a much stronger role as community banks and in the mortgage market. I would welcome that considerably. As Deputy Doherty is aware, we will be taking forward legislation to try to provide the structures that would support credit unions in that way.

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