Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

Section 19 states that all credit unions must abide by the new company's rules. At the very least, such rules must be agreed by consensus with the credit unions before one begins to impose them. Moreover, there may be difficulties in respect of the Competition Authority's views. On yesterday's Order of Business, I was somewhat critical of the Competition Authority. If its position is to be taken too rigorously, no one can combine or associate for any purpose whatever. It seems to me that freedom of association and organisation constitutes a fundamental democratic right. Consequently, Members have not thought through the relationship between the freedom of association and the needs of competition. Most credit unions, whatever side of the fence they are on, consider the contribution of 2% of savings under section 19 to be a stiff imposition and no reference is made to whether interest will accrue on the deposit. Section 21 provides substantial powers to the company to levy additional charges.

The legislation is far from perfect, even in detail, and needs further discussion. The issue boils down to process and everybody is agreed the issue needs to be addressed, but the question is how is it best addressed. Senator O'Toole is a prime participant in the parallel social partnership process and he would perhaps be the first to acknowledge, if he thought about it, that results are best achieved by negotiation, agreement and consensus rather than by legislative imposition.