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

Amendment No. 4 relates to a loan approval process that has been approved by the board of directors. In the past, credit unions had to spend too much time reviewing and affirming processes that are straightforward, which had to be approved by a physical board at every turn. That is too onerous for a board of directors, especially where we are trying to encourage more volunteers, streamline the processes, and make it a more professionally enabled organisation to be run by a CEO. Again, this is not about prohibiting the approval process by the board of directors but enabling them, should they wish, not to have to do it in person and to enable a certain amount of flexibility to do it otherwise, including by automation. That is the broader purpose of the two amendments. As the Deputy said, these relate to membership but also loan approval processes.

Quite a number of loans are very straightforward. While we do not want everything decided by computer, a certain amount can be decided by computer in the interests of members getting quick decisions, particularly for very straightforward loans. Obviously, there is an important degree of human supervision at every stage, but this is about providing greater choice and flexibility to each credit union to be able to adapt its processes appropriately. As I said, this is all in an effort to be as enabling as possible to allow individual credit unions make the best decisions for themselves, while removing perhaps some of the clunkier elements that were previously holding them back in respect of time and process.

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