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

He raised the effect of that on credit unions. Just this week I met the two deputy governors of the Central Bank. I raised the need to perform timely reviews with them and said I was concerned that the review period was migrating towards five years between the establishment of the regulations and having the review. I have also made this view very clear and plain to the Governor of the Central Bank. It is important that there are timely reviews. It is not acceptable that it takes a very long time to gather data before having a review. It is very important that this is done in a timely way. I expect the Central Bank to be able to do that. It is part of its role.

At the moment, a peer review of the performance of the Central Bank is being carried out by the International Credit Union Regulators' Network, ICURN. I have met with ICURN, as have CUAC and the various representative bodies. I have to recognise that the Central Bank is independent. The reasons for that are tried and tested but notwithstanding its independence, I have raised this very directly with both the Governor and the two deputy governors as recently as this week. I have confidence in the Central Bank to carry out its function and I now have confidence that it will expedite that review. I have received that commitment from the deputy governors that it is important to them that this be done in an appropriate and timely way.

I have also discussed with the Central Bank the timing of the commencement of this legislation and the various matters that would enable it to be commenced, such as the updating of the handbook. I expect two different approaches to be taken. The regulatory pieces, such as in relation to corporate credit unions, CUSOs and so on, will take closer to nine months but on the other pieces I expect that because the Central Bank has been so engaged in this work for some period, they will be done much earlier in 2024.

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