Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to speak on the Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2020. I will ask about three points: the virtual meetings of credit unions; the fiscal council longer term; and credit unions accessing the European Union SURE scheme as a facility lender. The board of directors of every credit union is drawn from the members. As we have talked about it, a credit union is a community organisation. A credit union is run by the community for the community and for the benefit of the community. It is a non-profit. One is looking at bringing in volunteers. Every board of directors does this freely in their own time. They commit their time and expertise. They have the knowledge to lead and manage their credit union. We all have to be very grateful because they are putting in the good governance measures that we see the success of credit unions has been based on.

Following on from Senator Sherlock's points, I would ask a question of the Minister of State, to which I do not have the answer. It is about building up the importance of the credit union and making it attractive in the community so that people participate in, become members of and get loans from it, hopefully, for a post-Covid summer holiday which people would be able to look forward to. There is a body of work here where the State could support credit unions in the communication of that role with public relations, encouraging people to join boards of directors, or some other incentive measures. This applies to boards of directors in credit unions at a local level and to the question before us now with regard to the fiscal advisory council where there seems to be a difficulty because the terms are to be extended. I am happy to see that a 50% gender balance is provided for on the fiscal council at the moment, although it is a small group. It is something the 30% club are always fighting for.

On the issue of virtual meetings, we have to be more flexible. For mothers and fathers with young families, for example, it is very difficult for them to participate in voluntary activity in the evenings. Any type of virtual meeting would only encourage and support people to get more involved with their credit unions.

On the SURE scheme, which is the European Union temporary support to mitigate unemployment risks in an emergency, Ireland is applying for financial support of more than €2.5 billion. Again, it is very important that all lenders are able to access this, as the Minister of State mentioned, and they would be considered a lender for the credit union. We are looking at huge rates of unemployment. Some 500,000 people are on some type of unemployment benefit and some 300,000 people are on the temporary wage subsidy scheme. It is crucial that we are able to access those funds, and that our lenders are able to access the funds directly from the European Union. I am very supportive of that, but there are questions around how we support and incentivise people to get involved in boards of directors and how we get people to build their expertise with credit unions in Ireland.