Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I join with colleagues in offering my comhghairdeas to the Minister of State on her appointment. I welcome the legislation, which is far-reaching and significant. It upholds the commitment in the programme for Government to examine this sector. In particular, broadening financial services and the foothold credit unions have in our financial services sector will be meaningful. I am particularly heartened by a focus on governance, considering governance structures, and that strategic planning piece. It is very worthwhile that there will be greater interaction between the Central Bank, the credit union advisory committee and the Minister. When we started this process, it was obvious that some of the communication could have been better and there were constraints that maybe did not need to be there.

I am also very supportive of the idea of the corporate credit union, something the industry has been seeking for a long time, as an answer to the spectrum of credit unions in the market and a way of parsing the difficulty in respect of the scale and size of some credit unions as opposed to others. I welcome the flexibility it will give credit unions in their own interactions and those with business. I hope we can use that greater flexibility to focus on societal issues, as finance is about society, such as housing, renewables and greater access to credit for SMEs.

I reiterate what was said by some speakers. Deputy Mattie McGrath said a little about this, as did a previous contributor, namely, that I hope we do not lose some of the strengths credit unions have as a result of these changes. I do not often agree with Deputy McGrath but on this I do; credit unions are in people's communities. They are here. The Minister of State will know this because we have sat on committees together discussing this issue previously. For somebody with a visual impairment, a mobility issue, or who is hard of hearing or does not feel confident moving too far outside his or her community - there can be many reasons - having a face-to-face interaction is what financial inclusion is about. We tend to think of it as people having to getting more tech savvy. It is not; financial inclusion is for everybody. Financial services are a utility just like water and we need to think of them that way. Even though I would like to keep the idea of public banking on the table, credit unions at present could fulfil that safer and more compassionate access and financial inclusion.

See this speech in context