Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the people involved in this collaborative piece of work: my predecessor, the Minister for State, Deputy Sean Fleming, who introduced the Bill into this House; and my officials on the credit union policy team, Catherine and Miriam in particular, who have done extraordinary work on this. I also thank the representative bodies - the ILCU; CUDA; the Credit Union Mangers’ Association, CUMA; the National Supervisors Forum, NSF; and the staff on the Registry of Credit Unions in the Central Bank - for their work on this and for their invaluable help. This has been a hugely collaborative effort.

Over the past year, as the Bill evolved, I met directly with many credit unions, their voluntary board members, management and staff. From January of this year I think we had 57 engagements with different representatives of credit unions o the development of this Bill. It is a hugely important opportunity to be able to solidify the position of the credit unions in the financial services architecture of this State and provide for its sustainability through increased lending. It is developing a community bank as is envisaged by the Retail Banking Review.

An example of the practical benefits of this is the establishment of a sector-wide mortgage CUSO that is currently being developed. I am happy to inform the Seanad that the CUSO has exceeded its funding target and will be up and running in 2024. The intention and purpose of this is to provide for a nationalised, standardised mortgage offering. Credit unions can have an enormously important role in the mortgage market, which is ever important, and one that is competitive against our current banks and offering. Of course, credit unions are already offering mortgages but I would like to see them do a great many more to enhance sustainability and increase access to financial services for people around this State in a very competitive way.

I am pleased to have been able to take this through the House on behalf of all the people who put the collaborative work into it. It will make a huge difference in terms of access to financial services.