Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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529. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of credit unions providing the It Makes Sense loan scheme; the number of credit unions not providing the scheme; the actions undertaken to increase the number; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53959/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Personal Micro Credit Scheme (PMC) provides for small scale loans, known as It Makes Sense loans, by credit unions to borrowers who have difficulty accessing low cost credit. The rollout and extension of the Personal Micro Credit Scheme, is among the commitments in the Programme for a Partnership Government 2016.

The aim of the scheme is to move people away from the use of high cost moneylenders as a mechanism to provide for their planned financial needs and to provide an alternative, legitimate, and low cost personal loan scheme. Currently 111 credit unions are participating in the scheme.

An Implementation Group chaired by my Department is in place to progress the initiative and continues to engage with the Credit Union representative bodies and individual credit unions to encourage participation in the scheme. However, each credit union is an autonomous body, with its own Board, which decides whether or not to participate in the scheme.

Efforts to increase participation in the scheme have included presentations to the Boards of credit unions; presentations at industry events such as Regional Chapter Meetings and Conferences; advertising and information in credit union representative body publications, for example CU Focus. Direct approaches to individual credit unions are also made on a regular basis. Peer to Peer credit union activities have also taken place whereby participating credit unions have contacted non-participating credit unions to share learning and experience on the benefits of participation to the credit union, to the community as well as to the individual borrower and encourage participation.

Since the scheme was initiated continuous process improvements have also been made: automation of processes between credit unions and An Post, which facilitates loan repayments through the Household Budgeting facility, has been put in place where possible and the administrative process has been streamlined.

A dedicated PMC Helpdesk providing information and support to prospective participating credit unions and ongoing training and support to credit unions which have signed up to participate is in place.

The Implementation Group continues to explore ways to increase participation in the scheme. Most recently, a Task Force has been established by the Social Finance Foundation (SFF), to discuss the issue of “Tackling High Cost Credit in Ireland”. Among its work elements is consideration of potential solutions to address the challenges facing the further rollout of the PMC scheme.

The Task Force is chaired by the CEO of the Citizens Information Board and includes representatives from my Department, the Department of Finance, the Central Bank as well as the credit union development and management associations.

Information on the PMC scheme and regular updates, including the list of participating credit unions is available at www.itmakessenseloan.ie, a facebook page www.facebook.com/itmakessenseloan and on www.citizensinformation.ie

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.