Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I support the Bill, in line with the Irish League of Credit Unions, as an important first step to achieving a policy framework that allows the credit union movement to strengthen and to grow. I repeat its calls that the Bill needs substantive amendment on Committee Stage to realise the policy and core objectives intended. Credit unions have long been a vital part of people's lives in this country. They offer much-needed services to communities all over the country and have long been a central part of community, rural and regional development. Credit unions were set up by the community and for the community and I support any movement that gives ordinary people a real, material say over how their communities and areas develop and grow.

Credit unions fulfil another important function. They are an important alternative to the financial sector that caused the disaster of the crash in 2008. We saw the total failure on offer from the big private banks and their drives for maximum profit for their shareholders at the expense of everyone else. This country saw a decade of austerity because of the financial sector in this country and internationally. We saw our public services cut to ribbons because of it. There is a real need for a strong alternative to the greed and fraud uncovered by the 2008 crash and the tracker mortgage scandal and everything that came with it. I believe that credit unions offer that. They offer a place where people can know that their money is safe and a place that will not bring the country down around their heads like the profit-at-all-costs banks did. Credit unions offer real services run in a reliable and people-focused way.

I support any measure that strengthens and grows the community-run, not-for-profit sector of our banking system. The problem is that the policy and regulatory system in which credit unions exist was never set up to support them. We have seen a massive reduction in the number of credit unions, from 415 in 2010 to 210 in 2022. The majority of that decrease is due to the amalgamation of different branches, but when put in the context of hundreds of bank closures and hundreds of post office closures, it just adds to the massive reduction in services across the country. With banks removing face-to-face services from communities all over the country, credit unions and post offices have never been more important. I have no problem with growing and strengthening credit unions, but smaller branches are an important part of life for thousands of people across the country. Far more needs to be done to ensure that smaller credit unions have the supports to survive and to continue to provide those vital services for their communities. People need those smaller branches and services. "Bigger is better" is not always right, especially in banking. We saw that in 2008.

Recently, I was in touch with an executive of a local credit union in my constituency. He said one of the biggest problems they are having is that they are being totally snowed under by financial regulations coming through the Central Bank and the EU. The problem is not necessarily that those regulations themselves are restrictive; it is that it is extremely costly and time-consuming to work out which of the hundreds of laws and regulations apply to credit unions and which do not. That puts a large burden on the resources and services of credit unions. It also requires higher and higher paid roles, requiring more and more expertise, which is quickly becoming prohibitive for smaller credit unions. How is a small local credit union in a rural area or an urban area supposed to find and afford somebody with expertise to shift through those hundreds and hundreds of regulations? One of the most simple but most effective reforms the Government could bring forward would be to instruct the Central Bank to use its significant resources to publish a list of laws and regulations that apply to the different functions of credit unions. That would take the burden off the small local credit unions which provide essential and vital services to communities in Ireland. I intend to make an amendment on Committee Stage in that regard.

I support credit unions. I should declare as well that I am a member of a credit union that is amalgamating with another public sector credit union, possibly in the near future. I support this Bill as a first step to the reform the credit unions need and should get. The strength of credit unions in Ireland is a massive opportunity to develop a strong not-for-profit banking sector and to get away from the greed and the drive for profit at all costs in the rest of our banking sector.

I will end by stating that I have for a long time supported a public banking system with post offices and credit unions called for by the public banking forum as an alternative to commercial banking.

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