Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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180. To ask the Minister for Finance the timeline for the establishment of a stakeholder group comprising of credit unions' representative bodies, An Post and other interested groups in establishing a stakeholder group to develop a community banking model appropriate to Ireland in view of the conclusions of the public banking investigation report; the supports the will be provided for such a grouping; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31572/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Report on Local Public Banking that was prepared by my Department and the Department of Rural and Community Development has now been published. While the Report concludes that there is not a compelling case for the State to establish a new local public banking system, along the lines proposed, there is a commitment from the Government to continue to consider other means by which the objectives of local public banking may be achieved.

The process of preparing the Report involved a public consultation exercise carried out in 2017 and through analysis of a proposal for a potential model of local public banking for Ireland, based on the German model, put forward by Irish Rural Link and the Savings Bank Foundation for International Cooperation. There were a number of meetings between officials from my Department and Minister Ring’s Department and representatives from Irish Rural Link and the Savings Bank Foundation for International Cooperation. Additionally, officials from my Department have engaged with both An Post and the representative bodies of the credit unions in advance of publishing the Report. My Department has also already arranged a further meeting with Irish Rural Link, subsequent to the publication of the Report.

Based on the findings and recommendations in the Report, my Department will commission an independent, external evaluation to examine other possible ways in which financial inclusion, access to finance by SMEs and rural and regional economic development, could be furthered in Ireland.

My Department is committed to continuing to engage with stakeholders, such as Irish Rural Link, An Post, the credit union representative bodies as well as any other interested groups, on this issue by way of a stakeholder forum.

The stakeholder forum will involve meetings with all interested parties and stakeholders. Work has commenced on this. The stakeholder forum will also likely involve coordination with other Government Departments. Further details of the stakeholder forum will be announced in due course, as arrangements progress.