Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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365. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she has received a submission from an organisation (details supplied) requesting that her Department establish a working group to investigate the establishment of a local public banking network here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5489/17]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I can confirm that a submission was received by my Department from the organisation in question, seeking the investigation of the establishment of a particular model of public banking in Ireland. The Programme for a Partnership Governmentenvisages that An Post, the League of Credit Unions and other interested stakeholders will be asked to investigate and propose a new model of “community banking”, such as the Kiwibank model in New Zealand, which could be delivered through the Post Office network. The Programme for Government also includes a commitment to investigate the German Sparkassen model for the development of local public banks that operate within well-defined regions.

The Action Plan for Rural Development, which was launched by the Government on 23rd January, also includes a commitment to investigate these models. The role of my Department in relation to these commitments will be to work with other Departments and stakeholders to examine the feasibility of these - and potentially other - models.

Senior officials from my Department have already met with their counterparts in the Department of Finance on two occasions and are developing a work programme to progress the commitment. It is anticipated that their work will be concluded by the middle of the year. Consultation with relevant stakeholders will be undertaken as part of the work programme.

It should be noted that while my Department is facilitating the process of progressing the commitment in the Programme for Government and Action Plan for Rural Development in relation to this particular matter, wider policy responsibility for public banking falls under the remit of the Department of Finance.