This article is from page 2 of the 2013-05-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
AN estimated € 240 million of ordinary hard-working Clare people’s money is being put under threat by a Government policy that “requires credit unions to give banks preferential access to creditors”.
According to MEP Marian Harkin (Ind), there are up to 66,000 people from the banner county, who are members of the county’s nine credit unions, and they must insist their public representatives oppose the Government policy and that of the Central Bank and regulators.
The MEP for Ireland North West accused the Government and the central bank of threatening the future of the credit union movement in the interests of banks, which, she said, had undermined the country’s economy and caused incalculable harm to individuals, families and the entire social fabric of the country.
“It is astounding, to say the least, that the Central Bank acting for the government, is attempting to weaken the credit union movement in the interest of the banks and in doing so is undermining a financial support mechanism which has, unlike the banks, done nothing but good for the community. The latest spokesperson for ‘official Ireland’ to engage in an unworthy attack on the credit unions is the registrar of credit unions Sha- ron Donnery. In her speech to the AGM of the Irish League of Credit Unions last weekend, she has warned of dire outcomes for the peoples’ credit movement if they fail to concede to the banks. For the Regulator of Credit Unions to demand concessions for banks, which broke every rule in the book by pushing excessive mortgages on people, is totally unacceptable.
“Even more unacceptable is the pressure being exercised by various representatives of ‘official Ireland’ that the banks must have preference over credit unions in debt recovery,” she said. “The banks, and the Central Bank, as their regulator, have lost any moral or business right to main- tain that mortgage repayment has primacy over the repayment of credit unions which are community-owned not for profit financial institutions.
“Over € 100 million of credit union funds were written off in the failures of Anglo Irish, AIB, Bank of Ireland and TSB. In no way can credit unions again be sacrificed to the benefit of badly-performing financial entities, many of whom are now raising interest rates on mortgages,” she said.
The nine credit unions in Clare include Derg Credit Union, Scarriff; Ennistymon and District, Ennistymon; Fergus, Lissycasey; Kilrush; SFADCo Staff, Shannon Town Centre; Sixmilebridge; St Peter and Paul, Clarecastle and St Francis, Ennis.