Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 9, before section 7, to insert the following new section:?7.?The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following new subsection after section 6(5):
?(6) Nothing in the foregoing will prevent a credit union from providing certain services, to be prescribed by the Bank, to a credit union or a member of another credit union registered under this Act.?.?.

I welcome the Minister of State. Our interaction with him and his responses to questions have been positive and I hope the debate will continue in a positive vein today. While progress has been made on the Bill, we are still slightly short of the line.

The amendment has been moved because insufficient movement has been made on the issue of shared services. Amendments Nos. 7 and 8 would allow for member level service sharing among credit unions. This is technological feasible and there is no reason the sharing of services should not be permitted in the Bill.

On Second Stage, the Minister of State referred to a report on shared branches, which is expected to be released in mid-2013, and indicated the Bill could not provide for shared services. He also noted that the issue of services had not been addressed in the report of the Commission on Credit Unions. That the commission engaged in significant discussion of member level shared services is reflected on pages 87 to 89, inclusive, of its final report.

Amendment No. 7 makes clear that any shared services would only commence with the explicit agreement of the Central Bank and where the credit unions in question have demonstrated a capacity to deliver such services. We have made obtaining the approval of the Central Bank a precondition for commencing shared services because a number of technical issues must first be addressed. The amendment does not propose to allow shared branching. It would, however, allow credit unions to avail of a shared services facility at member level and I urge the Minister of State to accept it.