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Seanad
‹ Order of Business

Credit unions and confidence agreement

Summary

Senator Boyhan highlighted the North-South role of credit unions and said they wanted Government support to develop further under the confidence and supply agreement.

This is International Credit Union Day and many of our colleagues were in the Davenport Hotel from 8 a.m. for a presentation. The credit union movement in Ireland is a North-South one. Most of the credit unions in Northern Ireland are accredited to the Irish League of Credit Unions, which is a really important point. What do the credit unions want to do? What did they state to us this morning? They asked us to come back to the Chamber to talk to both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. The credit unions state there is a commitment in the confidence and supply agreement between the two parties to develop a strategy for the growth and development of the credit union sector. Some might smile and ask what that is about when the State owns approximately 95% of AIB. Clearly, the State wants to see AIB boosted because at some point the Government intends to sell part of it. As such, some will ask why it would assist credit unions at this juncture. It would be timely for us to support credit unions. They have given everyone a pack setting out ten simple objectives and commitments, some of which appear in the programme for Government. In fact, some of them were to have been implemented within the first 100 days of the action plan for Government, but none has been achieved thus far. We should all try to get the pack or log onto the website to see what is in it and support the Irish credit union movement.

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