Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I should have made clear in my opening reply that the Central Bank makes decisions on regulatory matters and is independent of the Government and the Department of Finance. That is well established but I wanted to reiterate it.

The regulations developed by the Central Bank, which were updated just two years ago, provide substantial capacity for credit unions, in particular larger ones, to grow their mortgage markets. In the past year, the Central Bank has approved two groups to provide credit union funding to approved housing bodies, AHBs, for the first time ever. Every credit union can invest in the fund for AHBs directly.

The programme for Government refers to community banking. The Irish League of Credit Unions issued a letter over the weekend that most Oireachtas Members will have seen. According to it, the Irish League of Credit Unions was ready and willing to engage with me and my officials constructively on achieving this aim. That meeting has been scheduled for within the next fortnight. I look forward to returning to the House in due course with legislation to improve the environment for credit unions.