Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State here to speak on the Credit Union Restructuring Board (Dissolution) Bill. I very much acknowledge that ReBo has fulfilled its role, as he has said, under the 2012 legislation. He mentioned that there were 82 projects with assets of €6 billion that covered 156 restructuring of credit unions across 24 counties and performed very well over the period since 2011. I pay tribute to that massive project and acknowledge that the credit unions have also stepped up in the past number of years. Smaller credit unions have been subsumed and the legislation has allowed the amalgamation of a lot of them.

As many Members have spoken about here, there is so much to be said for the credit unions in our areas. Every town and village very much knows the power and importance of its credit union. One sees on Saturdays, when one goes home to try and get money out of one's own bank account, that there are long queues at the credit union. The credit union movement has lasted. For example, there has been a credit union in Ballinasloe for over 50 years. One of its founding members, Mr. Liam Kenny, who was a phenomenal person who worked in the credit union and started the credit union in Ballinasloe, was there to support families in times of huge need in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He said, "that the honesty and integrity of our members has kept us out of all that sort of bother", when talking about governance issues. He also said, "we are a members orientated organisation - our ethos is to help each other" and act in the common good. That is the sense of what credit unions are. They have supported many community projects and work so hard for communities, especially now in this time of Covid. Locally, I have seen investment in my community and they have supported Christmas lights projects, which has happened across the country.

As colleagues have mentioned previously, there are large amounts of cash reserves in credit unions and large levels of household savings that we are fully aware of, over the past year, particularly with the challenges of Covid and the lockdown. Are there plans afoot for credit unions to review their lending regime to allow higher spend amounts and more scope to support people, particularly in this time of Covid? Are we going to support businesses and people coming out of this period and into the new year?The track record of credit unions has been excellent. There are really good governance measures that have been put in place. We are seeing the benefit of the credit unions that have been effective in their own communities.