Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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112. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach on the credit union sector, in particular with regard to tiered regulation and a review of levies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13661/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Report of the Joint Committee which along with the Credit Union Advisory Committee (CUAC) Report and its forerunner the Commission on Credit Unions Report, makes an important contribution to the debate on credit union reform.

I wrote to the Joint Committee on 19th December 2017 to thank them for their Report and to advise that my views on the recommendations, many of which are common to the CUAC Report, including tiered regulation, and are being progressed.

Since 2012 there has been a very extensive engagement with the sector in relation to tiered regulation. The Commission on Credit Unions report in 2012 recommended the introduction of a tiered regulatory approach to ensure that ‘regulatory requirements in place for credit unions are proportionate to the nature and scale of the credit union.’ The Commission recommended a three tier system of regulation.

The CUAC report in 2016 recognised the significant challenges in the introduction of a tiered system and that the approach adopted can be expected to have a profound long-term effect on the sector and on balance considered a two tier system of regulation more appropriate.

Tiered regulation was also the subject of a Central Bank consultation, CP76, which finished in 2014. In light of the feedback received, the Central Bank did not propose to introduce a tiered regulatory framework for credit unions at that time. 

The Implementation Group, established to monitor and oversee implementation of the CUAC Report recommendations, continues to consider tiered regulation. The Implementation Group is finalising a comprehensive paper which will put forward a number of proposals for consideration by the Central Bank. I expect that the Implementation Group will report to me shortly.

Finally, I can advise the Deputy that my Department will shortly issue an information note to explain all of the levies and charges the credit union sector pays. The Stabilisation Levy review which my Department undertook in 2017 has also been published on my Department’s website.